pumpkins for halloween.

[yoanbob]

the problem with salt is that it goes into the soil and then your plants. nemaslug is a good solution, but may be a bit pricey for kayliegh

[williams4]

Hi all
With regards to keeping slugs of your pumpkins, i grew 1 for the first time this year and i put straw underneath the fruit and that seemed to keep the slugs off, i had 2 decent sized pumpkins from 1 plant. not bad for a first attempt i thought and my son cant wait for halloween so he can carve them up and my OH wants to make some soup with the flesh. hopefully next year i can grow a few more.
Hope that is of some help.
Cheers

[pumpkin cuddler]

Pumpkins I love them. We love them...

We grow lots of pumpkins and squash every year.

We have always grown them with lots of thick straw all over the ground, something snuggly for the pumpkins and squash to wiggle into, but also pretty good at surpressing the weeds.

To keep to slugs and snails at a distance we use grapefruit halve, (grapefruit flesh eaten by us not to slimeys). This seems to work pretty well as long as you remember to check and empty the grapefruits every day. How you dispose of them is your chioce but make sure it is permanent. We put ours in the pond for the frogs. If the frogs dont eat them the drown. A bit grim I know but the chioce is yours.

The other thing that we do is to get an icecream tub or something with a pretty tight fitting lid. Cut a few small holes around the sides. I made the mistake of being a bit generous and the mice got in. You then put bran inside the tub. Slugs and snails love bran. Trouble is that they cant stop eating it. The bran absorbs their moisture, as far as I can work out . Basically it kills them. Remeber to put a brick on top of the tub as it has a tendency to blow about the garden, wasting the bran.

In respect of planting your pumkin/squash. Do it in spring. That is about April time. Put them in pots on the window sill and in no time the little beauties will be coming through. We have a tradition in our house to kiss the seed before it is planted. It then knows that it is loved right from the outset.

In about mid May we dig quite big holes half fill the holes, first with fresh cut grass then on top of that really good compost and/or rotted manure. The pumpkins/squash are then planted out. At this point lay in as much straw as you can. Once the plants get their growing legs on there is no stopping them, laying in more straw becomes difficult then.

Water,cuddle and love them every day, once the flowers come. Feed them once a week once the fruit forms. Comfrey and nettle tea is great but stinks.

Sorry this was so long but I get so excited when it comes to pumpkins and squash.

Have fun and love your pumpkins.

[monkeybum]

We trie dto grow pumpkins this year but the plants ended up covered in a grey mould that we couldn't get rid of so we pulled them out. Does anyone have any tips?

[Lesley Jay]

That is great Pumpkin Cuddler! Thanks!

[SueA]

Sounds a bit like powdery mildew Monkeybum, maybe your plants had dried out in the hot summer we've had. Powdery mildew happens usually when the plants are too dry at the roots & maybe overcrowded & needing some space & air. I find most courgettes & squash type plants get it to some degree & it doesn't usually affect the fruits if you just cut off the worst affected leaves but it sounds as though you had a particularly bad case.
Thanks for the advice 'Pumpkin cuddler', I hadn't thought about putting bran in a container, presumably the slugs eat so much that they swell up & can't get back out of the holes? I have used beer traps but they are horrible to empty so maybe the bran method wouldn't be so bad!

[monkeybum]

Thanks SueA I think it must have been overcrowding. I will try again next year.

[k.chambers]

My pumpkin plant flowerd this morning (because i planted it too late). it is indoors. Thats my first pumpkin plant thats flowerd. My older sister managed to kill the rest.

Kayleigh.

[Mrs Dobby]

Well done Kayleigh! Bodes well for nest years planting if you got that one to flower!

[snohare]

My older sister managed to kill the rest

Yep, that's the sort of thing older sisters are good at !
Never mind, in another twenty years she might be quite useful...mine is (now).

[Alison]

Your older sister may now be useful but my older brother is still a useless great oaf!

[Earthbabe]

Yep, that's the sort of thing older sisters are good at !

Ah but what happens when you are the older sister, like me.

[bramble]

And me, you get blamed for everything. Showing a bad example and not taking care of the younger ones. You can't win when you're the eldest and you have'nt anyone to look up to.

[phil the shed]

i thought i would reply as i was cheered by your exhuberance of the orange one. this is my first year with an allotment. (spent too much time travelling and moving with jobs before) but grew a pumpkin in the garden last year and that was the last straw for her indoors she evicted me from the garden so it was off to the local allotment assoc. and now ihave signed for another for 2007 i'm hooked on all that is fresh.
anyway saved seeds and planted them out after last frost with tlc too but the old fella next door said leave soil a little lower around plant so when you water and feed in the early days plenty gathers around the flower and gives it all it needs to grow. six plants this year 23 pumpkins from 8inches across to 16/18 inche for the largest. i also use straw from very early on and have had no slug damage.