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Santa Ynez California

Hi. It is our second year. Despite an incredible amount of mistakes last year we ended up with two very nice pumpkins. We did not get our seeds into the ground until may 15 last year and I did not want to make same mistake again this year. This year we have seven very nice plants that are all about a month old and ready to go into garden. I started them under grow lights and they look great. My question is is there a problem starting them so early this year. They look fantastic and are getting quite big. Second question. All are basically same genetics as they all came from seeds from same club we got them from last year. However the plants from our 790 pumpkin are so much bigger and healthier than the plants from new seeds which came from 1300 plus pound pumpkins I am tempted to grow extra plants from it. Is it possible that these are going to be the best plants. Our 790 averaged 11 pounds a day and was not even a pumpkin until at least 18th of July. It seems its only flaws were my inexperience and too little time. Is there any corrilation between superior looking plant and pumpkin size. Thanks. Steve
ps. If you line all the plants up you can instantly tell which are from this pumpkin because of size and sturdiness even though they were all planted at same time.

3/27/2009 4:24:16 PM

Upstate S.C.

Some plants start off small, some start off GREAT..The only problem starting plants to early is that your weather may be a promblem, it may be to cold, thats why we put them in cold frames. HOWEVER if you start them to late, they might not reach there full potential by weigh off time. Its all a guessing game and location...Troop

3/27/2009 6:58:35 PM

Woburn, MA.

Hey Steve, the one problem with starting so early might be that the plants get root bound in the pots.

3/27/2009 11:22:02 PM

Santa Ynez California

Hi. Thank you. We are in southern California so from here on it should be no frost and today will be 80. Nights have been about 40 and then days mid 60s to low 80s. I think we got them out of pots just in time as roots were not too big yet. Our problem now is it has been a cold spring - 50s to low sixties and suddenly it is 80 so the plants need a lot of water right now and seem to not have the roots yet to quite deal with this sudden change of temp. Thank you again. We will keep the two 1300 plus seeds and then two of our 790s and see what happens. The seeds are out of canada and we are in so cal so is it possible the seeds from ours have climatized a bit. Thanks. Steve

3/28/2009 3:14:43 PM