{"id":5225,"date":"2013-09-12T01:57:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T08:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5225"},"modified":"2013-09-09T08:41:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T15:41:06","slug":"pumpkin-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/vegetables-herbs\/pumpkin-growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Pumpkin Growing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Third in a short series about Curcurbits.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2570\/4061339651_370cc6459d.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The British record for the heaviest pumpkin weighing 1,725 pounds can be beaten and you can win local shows next year by striving for this level of achievement.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Growing Tips for Giant Pumpkins<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Start in February with a large hole filled with up to a ton of well rotted horse manure<\/li>\n<li>Buy &#8216;giant seed&#8217; via the internet or use Atlantic Giant seed.<\/li>\n<li>In March sow the flat seeds, edge downwards not flat, in good sized pots in the greenhouse.<\/li>\n<li>Plant out on top of the compost or manure pile when the risk of frost has gone. Keep a cardboard box to cover the plant on nights when frost is a danger.<\/li>\n<li>Remove all but one (the chosen one) of the pumpkin fruits. If there are several, choose one that is about 8 feet from the roots.<\/li>\n<li>Cull all further fruit regularly.<\/li>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<li>When your pumpkin is the size of a football set it on a bed of straw to protect the skin and spread the weight.<\/li>\n<li>Bend the stem so the fruit has room to grow.<\/li>\n<li>No surprise that Giant Pumkins need lots of space plus they are gross feeders and drinkers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Watering and Feeding Tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Keeping the roots hydrated is the key to Pumpkin growing<\/li>\n<li>During dry weather the leaves can syphon water back out of the fruit!<\/li>\n<li>Drip water alongside the main stem or use a soaker hose. Water for at least an hour a day and more in hot weather.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid wetting the leaves which can get powdery mildew.<\/li>\n<li>A balanced diet is what you aim for. Feed with nitrogen rich chicken pellets or similar, in spring, to encourage leafy growth.<\/li>\n<li>From July you can change to a high potash feed to help the fruit develop.<\/li>\n<li>A can of Tomato feed every other day and an occasional seaweed feed with all the trace elements will provide a bit more of a boost<\/li>\n<li>Pumpkins get most food from the soil and root at intersections where stems and side shoots join. Cover with compost and bonemeal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/h3>\n<p>Pumpkin Protection<\/h3>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pumpkin skin is thin, soft and delicate when growing. Take care not to damage the skin.<\/li>\n<li>If the skin is damaged and the pumpkin starts to bleed sprinkle the wound with sulphur fungicide to cauterise and prevent infection.<\/li>\n<li>Shade the skin from hot sun during the day.<\/li>\n<li>Trap as much warmth around the pumpkin during the night when growth is fastest.<\/li>\n<li>A polytunnel will give added protection but is not essential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/h3>\n<p>Other Tips from other Posts<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Plants can be trained up frames or arches.<\/li>\n<li> Tie in until the tendrils can take some weight.<\/li>\n<li>Pumpkins can trail over 4 square yards unless growing tips are pinched out when plants are large enough.<\/li>\n<li>See <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/vegetables-herbs\/growing-pumpkins-and-squash\/\">Growing Pumpkins and Squash<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lady_fox\/1763413173\/\" title=\"Pumpkin by Lady_Fox, creative commons 2.0on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2087\/1763413173_6d4637d863.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Pumpkin\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Follow these simple tips to grow a 30 pound Pumpkin and with practice you will grow even bigger prizewinning Pumpkins of up to UK record size of 1725 pounds and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-5225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vegetables-herbs","tag-photo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}