Pumpkin growing

[CwtchyMama]

DS 3 came home last week from nursery with a pumpkin seed in a small plant pot & the teachers have told us its a competition to see who can grow the biggest.

I am so not a gardener but i have tried my best,i put a small plastic bag over it & amazingly it sprouted leaves!

A week on it has grown about 8" so i have used a stick to keep it straight & put an old lemonade bottle over the top.

It is still in the small plant pot so what do i do now with it?

Please help as i have no clue what to do & DS is really excited about it & likes to sit watching it grow.

Thanks.

How big is the pot? You may need to move it into a bigger one.

The following is a link for houseplants but it describes how to repot much better than I could.

Make sure the plant gets enough sun, as if it#s too dark it will grow really fast to get into the light, and you will get a weaker plant.

houseplants.about.com/od/pottingandrepotting/a/Repotting.htm

Hope this helps.

PUmpkins are greedy. When it's warm enough to plant out (ie when there are no frosts in your area)try to get a bit - a bucketful! - of well rotted manure and dig it into the hole where the pumpkin is going, and it will go mad with happiness.

Well done for getting so far so quickly. NB, they are sprawly plants and want to run over the ground, so a stick might not be appropriate later on.

Also occurs to me that as it is going so mad so early, you might not get it in the ground after the frosts - it might have gone too far and died off. So might be worth getting a secret packet of seeds and planting one every couple of weeks on the quiet so that you have one available ready to go when required.

And a word of warning. Most gardeners I know have started with the fatal words:
"I am so not a gardener "

Good advice here.When it does start producing fruit,it is a good idea to remove all but the biggest-the plant will then devote all its energy into 1 big pumpkin rather than lots of little ones.Feed it with tomato feed too and put a large slate or tile under the fruit to stop it rotting where it touches the ground.

Don't forget to keep us updated!

great advice,thanks so much.

I will send dh today to the local stables & ask for a bucket of poo for it.

I think i will get a packet of seeds & plant them also-just in case.

I must admit i am also checking on it first thing to see how much it has grown.

I will def keep you all updated,it has grown a little over night,so i cut the lemonade bottle at the top of the label so he has grown to nearly the top of it.

Thanks again.

Just had a little look underneath & i can see a tiny root starting to come through the bottom of the pot.

I will put it in a large bucket today,thanks.

We had a pumpkin last year. By mid summer our entire veg patch had vanished and it was making a break for two different neighbours gardens.
you have been warned

Oh thats fab,i cant wait tbh.

If i put it in a bucket today what should i cover it with? Should i leave it outside then?

Or should i put it in a bucket then bring it indoors & put it in front of the patio doors as they are south facing?

Joy Larkom in her veg book says that you can train pumpkins round in a circle to help with the space issue. Put a stick in when you plant it to show where it's roots are then as it grows peg down the new shoots. I had a go at this and used bendy twigs from our laurel. It started off well but got eaten by slugs so I can't say it worked. However I did it with a melon in a pot and it worked well. Another idea is to cut the end off a bottle and when you plant it out bury the bottle by the roots. That way when you water it can go straight to the roots.

don't put it straight from a little pot into a huge bucket; put it into something inbetween first and let it grow on a bit more. Much more manageable and it won't be sitting in a huge cold pot of soggy sour compost. Make sure whatever you put it in has drainage holes (and something underneath to catch the water if it's indoors).

Like cat says, plant one pumpkin seed a week, not all at once.

Pumpkins are a field crop for sunny climes - they need lots of warmth and sun and space, a longish growing season and you don't get that many pumpkins per individual plant.

So feed it, keep it watered, focus its attention on just one or two pumpkins and watch out for slugs.

I have heard that pee is a good fertiliser - full of nitrogen. Suspect that's a Bob Flowerdew trick but might keep ds interested.

Oh thanks for the tip re the slugs,we tried growing some strawberries last yr & the slugs ate them all.

I have got an old sandcastle bucket here so i will put it in there for a month or so.

What shall i put round it to protect it from slugs?

Thanks everyone you are all really helpful.