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Waterloo, Nebraska

I don't know if I am going to have a big one this year. My best pumpkin died at about 50 inches circ. Now another seems to have aborted at 46 inches and another at 32 inches. I think it is the heat. Some new females have been polloinated in the last 4 days. Is it too late for this to turn into a success story, or are the plants getting too old?

7/27/2006 1:22:10 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

Don't give up yet. You still have over 2 months of growing before weighoffs. Last year I gave up on one plant and let it go wild about the same time in July. By October it had put out 12 pumpkins averaging over 200 pounds each. I just wonder what I could have gotten if I had trimmed it down to just one or 2 pumpkins.

7/27/2006 5:33:34 PM

Waterloo, Nebraska

I moved one of my shade structures to two new babies this morning. They are too close together to keep both, but hopefully at least one will make it past 46" in circ. Mine all grow well at first. I have had 2 make 46" by day 14 and then drop dead. I think it is the heat. I have watered. I have misted the leaves. I have shaded them (with some of my best sheets). I have fertilized. I have killed the bugs. I have named them and petted them. Yet they still die.

7/28/2006 10:12:30 AM

Kuna, Id.

I decided to grow again this year after a few years off. These are the best plants I have ever had. Then came the heat no mater what I did kept getting the tips burned off the mains, then the first females opened at about 12 feet out but all the males were sealed shut. At 15 feet had females on both plants and all the males I needed. I iced them, talked to them gave them little pads to sit on, shaded them to keep the sun off and things looked good. I then set a few on secondaries to slow the main sets down until they got going. Then comes the 9 days in a row of over 100, and now I have huge nice looking plants with male flowers all over and a pile next to them of what was going to be my best year of pumpkins. I'm still trying to get something set. So don't feel bad it happens to everyone, just keep trying. I was about ready to turn the horses out on the patch to start breaking down the plants for next. year.
Good luck

7/28/2006 10:44:06 AM

Harrisville, Pa

I wonder if the problem is the pesticide you put on them? Would that cause the pumpkin to abort? I don't know if it would but I lost 3 pumpkins on two different occasions and they were tied around the time I spray the pesticides.

7/31/2006 1:55:02 PM

Waterloo, Nebraska

I think it is the blistering heat. They just can't survive 2 weeks of temps over 100 degrees.

8/1/2006 4:55:00 PM