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Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

I am trying to maximize the number of plants with plenty of room and not kill myself with work. Have seen that about 750-1000 sf per plant is best. Back to back (B2B) on the diagonal or other planting method that works best for rectangles? Maybe B2B every 28 feet (14 foot secondaries) along the 100 side? 2 rows of B2B 28 feet apart? Having trouble visualizing the best method.

Also I am not sure what people mean by 750 sf per plant? Does this mean 750 sf of leaves or does it mean it was grown in a 750 sf patch of which it may or may not have taken up all of the patch?

Figured I would use christmas tree but open to all suggestions.

I have fully amended throughout but am now gathering coffee grinds and other amendments for which I will not have enough to cover the entire patch so wanted to focus on amending the "stump areas."

Figured I would use christmas tree but open to all suggestions. Looking to grow a 1,503 this year so please keep that in mind! LOL.

Thanks

11/22/2006 1:53:54 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Around here 75x100 is a subdivision.

6-7 plants - all X-mas tree for sure. Then you have roon to move around too.

11/22/2006 9:19:32 PM

Santa Rosa, CA.

I would grow 8 plants back to back. That gives you room for 35' main vines and 12'side vines. Put up 4 hot houses with misters and your set. Growing seasons are too few and far between to not grow as many as you can.

11/22/2006 11:19:33 PM

Farmville, Virginia (mfowler@hsc.edu)

In Don Langevin's last book "How to Grow Giant Pumpkins III" he goes indepth about the new theory of the 400 to 500 sq. foot plant. He recommends 10' to 12' sides and 20 to 25' mains. According to him this is more than enough to grow a 1000+ lb fruit. This is using the Christmas tree and pruning every other side vine. Anyone have any thoughts about this method?

11/23/2006 8:44:40 AM

Mt.Pleasant,Iowa

My patch is 75-100 and I have tried different ways and b2b is the best for watering and upkeep. I had 6 plants but I had the west end of 20 feet for watermelon.

11/23/2006 10:50:11 AM

Montoursville, PA

I would run contined back to back cover crops year around in half of it while growing pumpkins in the other half.

11/23/2006 9:40:34 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

To determine the area of a plant grown Christmas tree:

Width of base times length of main divided by 1.8 (about)

So if you let the first secondaries run 12' on each side & set a fruit around 14', the secondary vines will stop expanding to 12' at around 16' (give or take). So the area behind the pumpkin should be about 24' x 14' or 336 sq ft.

The rest of the plant (from the pumpkin onward) will grow more or less as a triangle which is 24' across at the base but starts to taper down to nearly zero at the terminus.

So if the main runs another 16 feet past the pumpkin we'd end up with (about) 24 x 16 = 384/2 = 192 sf. after the fruit.

192 + 336 = 528 sq ft.

The trend this year was back toward bigger plants so if you can let the secondaries go to 14' per side you'd probably be better off.

28x14=392....28x16/2=224...392+224=616..Might still be small.

Joe Jutras told me his plants were all around 750 sf this year.

11/24/2006 9:07:06 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Correction: If the fruit is set at 12-14', then the equation is roughly width times length divided by 1.4 (about).

11/24/2006 9:09:52 AM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

Okay, that makes sense then. It is relatively simple math for a triangle shaped plant but I do appreciate the example.

I was thinking a fruit at about 12 feet with 14 foot secondaries. That makes a rectangle about 12x28=336 before the fruit assuming all secondaries reach the 14 feet. Then another 12 feet or so after the fruit with tapering sides so another (12*28)/2=168 making it a total of only about 500sf.

A 750 to 1,000 sf plant must then have tertiaries or something in order to get that large...correct? Even another 5 feet of main wouldn't seem to do it. Is there another pattern that works and gets a larger plant size?

11/26/2006 3:42:23 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Not necessarily. If you can get a real early start & grow it big enough before the "golden pollination window" opens, you should have a shot at a 750 sq ft plant without tertiaries. Secondary vines don't shut down the minute a fruit is set so they'll fill in some even after pollination. I'm wondering if the "big plant" guys in RI maybe didn't terminate anything at all this year but they're not saying yet. LOL We need to wait for the next Newsletter to find out for sure.

11/26/2006 6:37:04 PM

Utah

I think the easy solution would be to grow 12 plants.
3 rows by 4 columns :
each plot would be 25 x 25 thus each plant would be 625 sq ft. I'd grow them all Christmas tree style.
as the plants grew you could increase the size alotted to a given plant by decreasing the size of one of its neighboring plants.
I'll try to post a picture later.
If you want to look in my photo gallery you can see some triangle shaped plots that might give you some more ideas.

11/27/2006 12:59:33 PM

Utah

The Christmas tree pattern is a way to prune a plant not necessarily the shape that it ends up filling. In other words even if you grow a Christmas tree pattern plant, the final shape the plant takes can be almost any shape you want... including but not limited to a triangle, rectangle, square, diamond, and circle. Yes the plant typically grows in the shape of a triangle until vines are terminated. Most growers grow the Christmas tree pattern in a rectangular plot similar to what is shown in this picture:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/displayphoto.asp?pid=3524&gid=-3085

Also
- the area of a triangle is ½ x base x length.
– the area of a rectangle is the base x length.
Using these two shapes you can do pretty well approximate the size any plant, plot or patch out there as tremor demostrated.

You might also be interested in this link:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/displayphoto.asp?pid=3534&gid=-3085
Yes the graph is two years old but I bet the graph now would be pretty similar. (hey there is some thing else I can do this winter.)

I just posted several possible layouts for your 75 ft x 100 ft patch in my photo gallery. But they aren’t up yet
…so I’ll post a link to them tomorrow.

11/27/2006 5:42:19 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Lotsa room there Petman....I think in dead on sunlight 500 sf would be enough...If you're UV challenged then a little larger plant might help...In any case to plant that many plants would be a full time job...might want to rotate the crops to keep soil problems at the minimal and growing potential optimal...God Luck! GrowEmBig! Chuck

11/27/2006 6:10:47 PM

Vermont

Hope you have lot's of help,10-12 plants somethings got'a give.10-12 plants,3/4hr a plant,WOW!!! Good luck!!

11/27/2006 9:17:37 PM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

Well I think 10-12 plants is too many for me to handle! I want to be able to dedicate enough time to each of the plants to allow them to develop to full potential! I owe it to those who have been (or will be) kind enough to share their seeds.

I looked at your great submissions Gordon and they are very helpful, thank you very much!! I like the drawings not only of the 75x100 but also the other patches you sketched out.

Patch is full sun and pictures are in my diary now.

11/28/2006 2:00:11 AM

van isle b.c. canada

i grow 8 in a patch of 50 x 80 b2b ,works very well for me, with your size i would grow 10 or rest a section every year amd plant green manure on it.

2/4/2007 8:18:01 PM