So here's a rookie question...

[Lammie]

I live in North Central Texas. I have planted punpkins several times but have never had any luck with them. I know folks who have grown them around here, but I didn't know if we were really situated for it in this part of the country. I have nice sandy soil and I have a place picked out.

So when is the best time to plant them, have I missed my window, and can I even grow them here? I would really like to try. Just as an adventure.

 

[1982vett]

Check this site out.

http://www.sadako.com/pumpkin/growing.html

 

[Lammie]

Great site! Thanks!

 

[csutton]

Try this one as well:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/vegetable/cropguides/

 

[Lammie]

Try this one as well:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/vegetable/cropguides/

Very helpful, as well. Thanks! I am gonna break ground this weekend.

 

[3waycross]

Oh heck Lammie it's not rocket science. 1/2 sand and 1/2 manure. Water em when they're dry. You'll knock em dead

 

[Lammie]

Then why have I never had success in growing them??? I can generally grow about anything, but have never been good with the pumpkins.

 

[iowahawkeyes]

I live in North Central Texas. I have planted punpkins several times but have never had any luck with them. I know folks who have grown them around here, but I didn't know if we were really situated for it in this part of the country. I have nice sandy soil and I have a place picked out.

So when is the best time to plant them, have I missed my window, and can I even grow them here? I would really like to try. Just as an adventure.

What goes wrong with your plants? I hear people tell me the same thing every year. Bugs can be a huge issue, you won't always see them either.
I plant in early May to have them ready in Sept./Oct. so you have plenty of time yet. The frost isn't out of the ground here yet.

 

[Lammie]

I gather it is an issue of fertilization, as I get beautiful vines, flowers, sometimes little bitty pumpkins, but then they die. Sometimes just the blossoms and no fruit. No wilt and no bugs. Just no pumpkins.

 

[1982vett]

Sounds like you are describing a problem with pollenation.

 

[Lammie]

Sounds like you are describing a problem with pollenation.

Yeah, either I don't have sufficient male and female blossoms to accomplish fertilization, or I haven't got enough bees to do the job.

I have been thinking of getting into bee keeping...

 

[iowahawkeyes]

I gather it is an issue of fertilization, as I get beautiful vines, flowers, sometimes little bitty pumpkins, but then they die. Sometimes just the blossoms and no fruit. No wilt and no bugs. Just no pumpkins.

it could be fertilization, but you can hand pollinate too. Not all flowers make a pumpkin, only the female flowers (they are the one with the baby pumpkins "under" the flower). My kids like to pollinate, it's easier than hoeing!

 

[BTRANCH]

We had a pumpkin plant come up "volunteer" from the fall harvest display the year before. The vine grew about 12 feet long and we only got 1 pumpkin from the whole thing. It was amazing to watch it grow every day and then when it started to ripen, it looked like tiny orange veins that kept spreading and spreading.

You might have squash bugs, they ate everything in our garden one year. Nasty little buggers. (no pun intended)

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

Pumpkin plants like a lot of water, but the pumpkin itself doesn't need to sit on damp soil all the time or it will rot. My greatest enemies are bugs. :x It's too early to plant them right now. Wait until late April-June. They don't like temps over 95 either IMO.

When I was a boy, I read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is the story of her husband Almanzo's youth on the farm. He raised his prize pumpkin on milk. Cut a slit in the vine, rigged up a candle wick or something like that running to a bowl of milk.

 

[Lammie]

Pumpkin plants like a lot of water, but the pumpkin itself doesn't need to sit on damp soil all the time or it will rot. My greatest enemies are bugs. :x It's too early to plant them right now. Wait until late April-June. They don't like temps over 95 either IMO.

When I was a boy, I read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is the story of her husband Almanzo's youth on the farm. He raised his prize pumpkin on milk. Cut a slit in the vine, rigged up a candle wick or something like that running to a bowl of milk.

I have heard people who grow those giant pumpkins say that they fed them milk. And like, thousands of gallons of water. For the huge ones, that is.