Giant Pumpkins

The stem of the pumpkin is headed for the ground. Hope it does alright later on.

STem view

Thanks Dale, and im glad i dont have to rotate this one. HEAVY !

Can't believe I check your pumpkin everyday! Thank you for sharing!!

i repositioned the pumpkin. Lifted its stem end and lowered the blossom end. Looks better now. Little whopsided but maybe she will grow out of it.

Thanks for viewing Grammy.

Its growing slowly right now with all the cloudy days and Rain Rain Rain. Cloudy days slows the growth. Sunny increases the growth. Much needed rain but afraid it will crack my pumpkin. Raining all weekend. So to keep the rain off most of the plant area, I put up a Tarp Tent. Looks like a revival.

The rain is gone for the day and lots of sunshine. Took down the tarps and made a small shade structure for the pumpkin alone. Lots of growth today with sun.
It has gained 11 pounds a day during the cloudy rainy days. Grew very slowly.
Weighs about 135 pounds this evening.

I cannot beleive how big your pumpkin is already.I know you said your fair is in Oct so when will you pick this one?Do you have more growing in case something happens to this one. I know you said you were limiting the number so it would get big.

I have another plant that I will grow a pumpkin on for the Fair. This one will not make it to the fair. But I can still take this one to a Certified Scale with Offical Wittnesses for state records. I wont win any prizes. No money, no nothing.
The other plant should pollinate first few days in Aug. (hopefully)

23 days after pollination: 75" cc.

And the next picture will be posted????

I think we got one good day of sunlight this past week. The pumpkin is growing so slow.
Disappointing. We need Sunshine! But we need rain too.

24 days after pollination: 78 5/8"cc-52-60 =190 5/8 " OTT (150 lbs est) Estimating 10 to 11 pounds a day.
It is hard to see a differance in size from one day to the next right now. Looks the same as yesterday. But the leaves get bigger.LOL

Found my nose stuck to the 'puter's screen as I'm following its progress.

Lily - so you are watching the pumpkin too,huh? I have been watching too! Just awestruck at the rate of growth of this pumpkin. Hubby wants to know if we could do this next year!!

Crickets- You are an inspiration. I wish you much luck and you need to know you have folks rooting for you from all over the country.

Sharon

There are lots of us following the great pumpkin, and it isn't even Halloween!!!

Just think, I have some plants that will be growing pumpkins and green squash
(pumpkin look-a-likes) By August and Sept. The roller coaster isn't over yet.

Meanwhile I feel like Im waiting in line to reride this one. It has slowed down so much. Its plum boring at the moment. But after these cloudy days of rain subside, it should pick up growth right away--just around peak growth time too. Hopefully .

We have had 4 1/2 inches of rain so far in the past 5 days. I have a rain guage. So with all these clouds, the pumpkin leaves cannot draw in sunshine to increase the pumps growth. Must have sunshine!!!!!!!!!! We never have this much rain in July.

NO picture today. very rainy this morning. Had an inch of rain before 8 am already. Should sprinkle til 11ish am.

I did get a quick measurement :80 1/4" cc.

The rain slacked off and the sun peaks through every now and then.
I did a complete measurement.
80 1/4 +54+63= 197 OTT (est 165 pounds)
Strangely to me--since i am new at this---the pumpkins growth shape has shifted. It seems to grow bigger over the top and from side to side rather than circumfrence here lately.
Which I have noticed other pumpkin growers CC changes too. In the end, its the OTT measurements that count--gives the estimated weight gain. I think when i repositioned the pumpkin--it caused a shift in the growth shape. The top is deffinately getting higher up. Which this could cause problems later on if I am not careful ---but also dont have much control over it. If the top gets too heavy too fast--it could crush down on itself causeing it to Crack at the base. Getting a picture here shortly

Cant tell much differance in growth from day to day. but if you look way back til now, it sure is big.
237 More pounds to go to beat the state record.

somebody smart should design a waterbed for these guys...I am enjoying your story too, (and wishing we had some of your rain!)

I can estimate what my pumpkin will most likely weigh by the time it is 60 days old.
Estimated Weight at day 30 - Estimated weight on Day 14 ( 16 days)=Average Daily Weight x 50= Estimated weight on day 60.
Humor me. I estimate that the pumpkin will weigh 247 pounds on Day 30. And Estimated Weight on day 14 was 25 pounds. 247-25=222 pounds divided by 16 days =13.8 pounds average daily weight gain x 50 = 693.75 pounds by day 60.
It can be more or less depending on the environment . Fun estimating. I am impatient for day 30 to get here so I can have a real estimated weight.
on day 25 now.

Wow, this thread is a nice record of the growth of a giant pumpkin by a dedicated grower! And it seems you've got quite a following. I wandered over here from the link you tacked onto one of your greenhouse threads (which I've enjoyed following over the years).

You asked for others' pumpkins, so here's ours. I bought some of these Dill's Atlantic Giant seeds last fall and this spring when my kids were asking to plant and grow something in the little garden in their part of the yard my eight-year-old son picked out the giant pumpkin. Knowing the way pumpkins feed and sprawl I piled up a good quantity of compost and transplanted his pumpkin into it. I've done little else to care for it and the only water it currently gets is from the sprinklers since there's no hose in that part of the yard. It's currently at 16 days from transplant, 12 ft long, with the leaves at the bottom of the photo about 14". It currently has three immature fruit on it, after the two close to the root that I removed. Your thread has me rethinking how to handle this thing. Certainly I'm going to have reconsider the size of the plant itself!

Im thrilled that there are more giant pumpkin growers out there. Maybe by the time we get through this year, We will have many many joining the hobby next year. And maybe a Giant Veggie Forum. I want to grow giant watermelons and cantaloupes but have not learned it yet.

Count me in for next year!

I'm not working on the same scale, but this year I decided to grow the larger Full Moon white pumpkin instead of the smaller Lumina. This one claims to go up to 90 #.

I planted at the end of May and set out the transplant around June 20. Unfortunately, I didn't plant any backups, as I did with the rest of the winter squashes. Something [I suspect the raccoons] tried to dig up this plant to get to the fish emulsion I used for fertilizer, and it's still smaller now than the squashes set out at the same time. None of them have flowered yet. I'm not really in a hurry, since I'm aiming for Halloween and a big white jackolantern.

I've seen a lot of good ideas in your posts, but I'm laying off the fish emulsion!

I only use the fish emulsion as a foliar spray. Though i did put a few fish in the ground. No critters dug at it . But it is next to the road. If you have critter problems--you could bury fish around the main stump area in advance for next year at least a foot deep. From what i understand, the stump roots go deep but the vine roots stay somewhat shallow.

26 days after pollination: 83-55-64=202 OTT (est 177 pounds)
Another cloudy morning. Come on sunshine

With all this rain---yep, I have stem splits. I feel hopeless. I made up some captan paste and painted all the splits and cracks i could find and then some. Have major splits above the stem and below the stem. The splits run into the pumpkin fruit. I do hope its not over.
I removed the sand that was proping up the stem end of the pumpkin and checked for rotted spots. none were there. But I remeasured the pumpkin since the sand was no longer in my way. The correct measurement is 83-59-64=206 OTT (187 lbs estimated)
Not that it makes any differance at the moment. Mostly worried about those darn splits.
I will not water today at all. Expect 60% rain tomorrow and could just scream!!!!!!!!!!
REst of the week expect evening showers 20-30%

You can barely see the one underneath.

The future has hope.
556 Lishness and the 1000.4 Lishness Plants

Captan treatment--this is a fungicide to prevent fungus while splits heal themselves.
If the splits get any bigger, I will have to put foam insulationin the splits.

Since I had the tarp removed to inspect and doctor my pumpkin, I took a nice view picture.

Does that pumpkin have cellulite???

Another

LOL, no cellulite. Lucky pumpkin!

Can you put something next to the pumpkin to give the idea of the size?

I already have a five gallon bucket lying next to the pumpkin holding the vine up. Maybe that will do.
For some reason, most giant pumpkin growers like to put a soda can on top of their pumpkin. Hows that?

A very nice looking pumpkin. It would be a shame to have rot move in now.

Did you remove the leaves at the nodes near the stem to the pumpkin?
Did I understand right above that the pumpkin will crush itself if it's not lying in the right direction? Is that why they are never grown with the stem side up and the blossom end down?

Oh yes, that puts it in perspective!

cricket - did I mention that I make the most outstanding pumpkin pie ? Well pies in your case.

The pumpkins grow so huge that if they sat on their bottoms it would rip the rooted vines up. Its best to lay them on their sides.
Yes i removed the leaves around the pumpkin because the their stems damage the pumpkin--leaves scars on pumpkin.

Guaged 2 1/2 inches of rain this morning. MOre rain in forecast.
The splits are bigger. Nothing I can do.

27 days after Pollination: 86-60-66=212 OTT= 203 pounds estimated.

From your measurements you've now had more rain in the last week than we get in an entire year here. We're all pulling for you, but at least you have a couple backup plants. With all of the time and care and love and hope you've put into this pumpkin it must be really difficult to helplessly watch the stem crack. Would that there was something we all could do to help you.

Good to know about the leaf stems on the pumpkin. I always turn the 25# jack-o-lantern pumpkins blossom end down for the sake of form, which is why I asked, but I can see that your stem would be a long ways in the air if you did that.

Looks like I've now got one of the three females that's taken and growing, but I may pull it off because its the closest to the trunk at ~6'. Not because I want more distance out for growth, but because I want to incorporate more of the side shoots before the pumpkin. I do have an advantage for height because the trunk grows out of an 18" tall x 5' x 8' compost lasagna so the vine descends to the pumpkins right now. I'm not trying to grow a monster record breaker, but I'll keep some slack there just in case I need it.

The form is definitely Christmas tree right now. I pulled a new side shoot out of the neighbors yard yesterday. Vines are growing ~18" per day and there's well over a dozen side shoots. In retrospect I should have realized that a giant pumpkin would also grow a giant plant, but I'm trying to figure out how to manage that kind of size right now. How much area does your pumpkin plant currently cover?

Ironically, the only other plants nearby are a miniature watermelon and a Sugar Loaf (tiny delicata acorn like C. pepo).

Here's the blossom a three days ago.