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Brampton Ontario

Hi, I am a first year grower of Dills Giant Pumpkins. I live in Brampton Ontario and i have heard that you can inject milk or beer into your pumpkins to make them grow bigger. Is this true? Does anyone know anything about injecting your pumpkins? or has anyone heard of this? If so, How do you go about doing it and when?

I would appreciate any info you can give. I have been searching the net for information on injecting and i havent found anything at all yet.

7/1/2005 2:16:45 PM

Vancouver, White Rock, Canada

No.

7/1/2005 3:08:21 PM

Butler, Ohio

Nope

7/1/2005 4:32:50 PM

Ann Arbor, Mi

Some things will never go away.....no milk

7/1/2005 4:47:30 PM

Pembroke, New Hampshire

Mix the milk with a little Kaluha, sit back and drink it down. When finished, pop the beer and admire your pumpkin growing in the garden. Don't drink too many beers, or you might just think that "injecting" something into the plant will actually help.
Happy Canada day!

7/1/2005 4:58:20 PM

Brampton Ontario

Ok Sheesh, no need to be rude. I was just asking, like i said i have never grown pumpkins before and someone told me that you could do that. Thats why i posted the message so i could find out if it was true or not.

7/1/2005 9:38:32 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

Old wives tale z, lots of people that I tell about growing AG's ask if I inject it with milk or anything else, so it is a popular myth. I have read on this board that some people use a diluted milk solution as a fungicide. Peace Wayne

7/1/2005 10:02:09 PM

Deer Park WA

We feed all our plants with milk injections as the beer is too precious! No actually we keep the milk for the cat so they are strong and catch Moles, in fact we keep the beer for ourselves as well and still have a little left over (kinda) for the Moles. Fact is there are no secrets here in pumpkin land just good clean horticural practices. Although I doubt anyone here would dispute the merits of an occasional seaweed foliar application.

7/2/2005 1:54:50 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I think the old Milk stories probably came about as a farmers solution. Unprocessed milk would spoil fast. If the milkers were doing well, surplus spoils had to go somewhere. Today we know that a daily squirt of unprocessed milk helps keep Powdery Mildew in check. Who is to say this old wives tale didn't really hold some truth water back when modern fungicides weren't an affordable option? The Calcium in milk is unavailable to plants. But 100 years ago the plant with the least Powdery Mildew would logically have produced the largest pumpkins.

7/2/2005 11:16:27 AM

milk and beer are no good for pumpkins. mix the milk with Kalhua and crack open the beer when you're done drinking that. and btw, no one meant to be rude to you, we just like to joke around a lot around here. :-)

7/2/2005 1:30:28 PM

Butler, Ohio

I get the same question here all the time from well meaning people. I live in a small town everybody knows everybody and word travels fast. Especially about the nut that lives back on the alley whose yard is full of pumpkin vines!!! Anyway, when they ask me if I feed them milk, I tell them "No, just cattle steroids." and watch their reaction...lol. :)

7/2/2005 3:03:01 PM

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Did you know that Howard Dill injects his vines with milk to make the pumpkins grow big? I didn't either until a guy at work who's never grown a pumpkin, and never been to the Dill farm told me so. He must be right though, he said it with a serious tone. In case you couldn't tell, I'm "injecting" as much sarcasm into this as I possibly can.

7/2/2005 7:44:25 PM

New Hampshire

I heard PumpkinSupply.com has a 3 legged pumpkin milking stool. I just can't seem to find the udders on my pumpkins. They also have a beer stool, 4 legs, seatbelt and airbags

7/2/2005 11:27:16 PM

Brampton Ontario

Ok guys i get the point.. sheesh i have another question about why the main part of my vines are a different color, im almost afraid to ask.

7/3/2005 1:42:54 AM

Follansbee, Wv

Ask away. Don't mind the wise cracks, it's all in fun. If you're going to ask why some of your main vines are turning yellow, it's normal. This is the New Growers Forum. I am also a new grower. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Most of the growers here are actually very helpful. I will share what limited knowledge of pumpkins I have as well as my vegetable gardening and composting knowledge which is somewhat more extensive since I have been doing both for most of my life :)

7/3/2005 8:51:46 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Lots of different colors on some vines. Some are all yellow, others all green & every combination possible. Genetics rules this roost. No problems. It's part of the fun. With some genetic lines the vine color is indicative the finished fruit color & in other not. Green = green & yellow = orange. But not always.

7/3/2005 9:09:55 AM

Montoursville, PA

Give the milk to the kitty. Drink the bear. Pee, in the empty beer cans. That would be 14% nitrogen. Dilute five to one and feed your pumpkin the result, of drinking beer.

Incidently.....if the body doing the peeing is healthy there are no bacteria, in human pee, unless you hit the hand that is holding the can first.

7/3/2005 7:19:05 PM

Long Island,New York

I hate when that happens. Doh!

7/3/2005 9:30:43 PM

Deer Park WA

Just feed it "undiluted" to the moles and they get the point, in other words they move 5' over and pop up again,,, Grrrr...

7/4/2005 1:45:47 AM

New Hampshire

Make sure you keep the pee filled cans seperate from your open active can of beer.

7/4/2005 6:07:32 AM

Oz

TREMOR,,
could the "foods" in milk be made available to the
pumpkin?

7/4/2005 8:16:11 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Not really. Milk is 80% water. Then fat & carbs. The Phosphorus & Calcium would in time become available if applied to the soil. But there is no "in-plant-process" that can *digest* the fats.

The Powdery Mildew supression is caused by the pH change at the leaf surface & not related to a nutritive exchange.

Check this out:

http://classes.aces.uiuc.edu/AnSci308/milkcomp.html

7/4/2005 9:04:46 AM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

I would never try injecting milk but over the period 12-18 months ago I poured about 500 gallons on to the heap of cow manure that I spread on the patch back in the autumn simply putting back into the manure what the cow took out of the feed.

7/4/2005 10:02:24 AM

Long Island,New York

I thought that was how they got white pumpkins like cotton candy and luminas?.....

7/4/2005 10:41:39 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

This might explain why Glenn's squash are all orange.

7/4/2005 7:04:21 PM

Deer Park WA

Ouch...

7/5/2005 2:30:06 AM

Somers, CT

Camaro, feel free to ask any questions you want. I am sure each of us has a story about doing something stupid without asking. I for one started pruning all my secondaries one day thinking the main was the other vine. I would stick with seaweed. If you are still in the game you are doing fine. RobT

7/5/2005 11:12:49 AM

Somers, CT

almost forgot. Sit back and suck down a scotch on the rocks.

7/5/2005 11:21:37 AM

Brampton Ontario

Hey Rob T, Thanks for the comment.. Thats why i asked before i did anything. I didnt want to do something that i had doubts about with out asking and researching first.

7/6/2005 12:22:37 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

milk will curdle in a pumpkin...duh

7/7/2005 10:43:29 AM