Sprouting Pumpkins Now!!!!

[Mrs Dobby]

Well, Mr D was off today, so planted up 10 of the sprouting seeds in pots, which are now adorning the bedroom and bathroom windowsills, plus planted the rest into a bed under the central heating vent at the side of the house, it's quite sheltered and he's covered it with some bubblewrap, so perhaps they may grow and survive, but if not its no big loss! Have to wait and see what happens now with the ones in the windows! I'll keep you all posted as to how we get on!

[Earthbabe]

Good luck with those Mrs D.

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks EB! We'll see how it goes!

[Mrs Dobby]

Ok, we now have 10 pumpkin seedlings of about 4" height in the 6" pots Mr D planted them in!

They seem to grow everytime you look at them, kind of like a triffid or AudreyII from The Little Shop of Horrors!

They seem to be doing ok, I've turned the pots 180 degrees, so they wont end up bent over looking for the light, but all of them have 2 leafs and are looking quite happy! Will be interesting to see how they get on over the next few weeks as daylight reaches its low point!

I'll post some piccies later when I've found some AAA batteries for the digital camera!

[HappyMouffe]

Excellent, Mrs D.
I think I'd be having nightmares about them winding their tendrils around my neck in the night :O (overactive imagination, me)

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol HM! They are doing well, but I dont think we are in any danger yet! Most now have 4 leaves and are about 8" or so tall!

I think there's one that looks a little limp, so may well loose that one (its in the Bathroom, North Facing, so may not be getting enough light, but nowhere else to put it atm!), but the rest all appear happy enough as they are, only time will tell if they are to make it through the winter and be ready to plant come the end of the frosts tho!

[rustylady]

DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS LOOMING, METHINKS!

Hope they survive the winter without getting too big. Do let us know how they get on.

[Mrs Dobby]

Pumpkin piccies

Well, they seem to be growing, we've lost 2, but the others arent doing too badly at all!

There's a few piccies attached to this post of them, the largest is the last one, thats in our bedroom, so obviously it likes the atmosphere in there! (unless it just wants to eat us both, 'Feed Me, Feed Me Now!')

[SueA]

Definitely a 'Little Shop Of Horrors' moment there Mrs.D.!
Are you going to keep them in the house all winter or move them to a greenhouse or something later? Would be great if you can keep them going till the spring & have a head start on next season.

[Mrs Dobby]

Our Greenhouse isnt heated, so I think we'll be keeping them inside until it starts to warm up a bit, we will probably try and plant them in the greenhouse come the end of Feb and see how we get on! I'd love to think we can keep them going and get a bumper crop next year, but only time will tell!

[Earthbabe]

Have you named the one in the bedroom Audrey 2 yet??

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol EB, yep, thats her name!

[Crazy Chickie]

Hi Mrs D, how are your pumpkins getting on? Thinking of starting some of my own off soon, give them a bit of a boost as the growing season is very short up here. Are yours still growing strong? Did you set up the reflector? ??Questions, questions?? Any advise would be much appreiciated as I've never grown pumpkins or squashes before.
Cheers muchly
CC

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi CC!

All but one of them have died off I'm afraid, but the one we have left is still going great guns! Its the one we put into the bedroom windowsill, which is south facing and (as I now realise) gets more light than the downstairs windows, so I know where I'm going to be putting my seedlings later this year!

The last remaining pumpkin (Audrey Too) is now 18" tall, has about 10 leaves and has lots of immature flowers, about 4 or so look like male flowers, and the rest look to be fruiting female flowers, which look like they may be ready to open in a couple of weeks! I'm hoping we can keep Audrey going until the weather improves a bit and the frost risk is over, when she will be moved into the back garden, and hopefully she will give us a few pumpkins this year! If it turns out she is more productive than those that we are going to germinate and plant out later then I will try another ultra early germination next year, but only time will tell whether it is truly worthwhile! I'll post a piccy or two when I get the digital camera back from Mr D, its sat in his glovebox atm, and his car is parked up at work, so cant do it yet, sorry!

I have a feeling we are going to try germinating some more once we get into februarym in the hopes that this will give us some nice strong plants to put into the allotment when the frost risk has passed!

[Crazy Chickie]

Great to hear Audrey 2 is still going strong, and coming into flower too! How did you do that? Did you feed her lots? ...and what exactly have you been feeding?!?!