Message Board - BigPumpkins.com

sevierville, Tn

What size & shape should we shoot for with our plants ?
Any thoughts...200 sq ft, 250,300, what ever the plant wants ???
How about shape. Xmas tree like our pumpkins. Square ? Rectangle , circle ?

Last year i had a long narrow 200sq ft rectangle. I feel this was a little too small & not the best shape. This year i'm going to try about 300 sq ft and a wide rectangle so i have more room.
Looking for input ? What are you doing ?

11/22/2008 11:37:20 AM

Team Wexler

Lexington, Ky

I'm shooting for one plant at 300 sq ft and one at 150.

11/24/2008 3:26:27 PM

Farmer Chuck

Santa Rosa, CA

I grow my pumpkins in a 24' X 24' area. (576 square feet)
This past season I grow 3 watermelon plants in one of those squares. The plants had enough room. One watermelon weighed 131 pounds!

From what I observed the plants grew out in a circle from where I planted them, unlike the Christmas tree pattern I train the pumpkins on.

Next time, I will put each watermelon plant right in the middle of a 12' x 12' square. 15' X 15' might give you a little extra room.

I would try for square spaces instead of rectangle spaces.

Good luck next year!

Chuck

11/24/2008 5:08:13 PM

sevierville, Tn

Farmer Chuck, Seem that planting in the middle would ideal for plant growth, but not for care. How do you get to the middle for plant care after the plant has grown out ?? Leave a walkway ?

11/24/2008 11:19:27 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

I have an area about 25' x 100' that I grow 8 plants. I put the hills just in from the North end about 5', and grow the plants towards the south (the 25' way). I train all my vines to the south in a fan shape. Since the hills are only about 10' apart, the plants eventually do grow together as they fan out. But this arrangement does give me easy access to the stump, which I use for spreading manure tea, and for watering.

I have tried putting them in the center, and having them grow in a circle, and that was really bad for maintenance.

11/25/2008 10:26:12 AM

sevierville, Tn

MMM, Ok thats what i was thinking & will try to do (fan shape) Sounds like a good plan ! Now if i only had a bigger yard ! Wonder if the wife would mind me moving her roses ??? ;)

11/25/2008 1:14:22 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

The other advantage to having them on one side and training them is that in general the vines grow long, and you then have more space for the their outer growth. I have my primary often grow from 28' to 35' long. I will just point the bad boy back in when it hits the limit of the growing area. Some people might even trim it off.

11/25/2008 1:36:43 PM

sevierville, Tn

Wow, thats long for the primary. Mine did like the pumpkins do and slowed to a crawl as the fruit got bigger.
It finally stoped growing as the fruit passed 100 lbs. The other mains kept growing and got to the patch end at 20' ,that was the end of the space.

11/25/2008 7:59:17 PM

Alabama

Wow! I thought I was a space miser only giving each plant 800sq ft. I am planning on expanding the patch next year to 45’ X 180’ ft. enough for eight plants, with a row of tomatoes too keep prying eyes off the patch.

12/2/2008 2:30:24 PM

sevierville, Tn

1SG, wow, that would be big enough for 8 pumpkin plants. You should be able to put in 16 watermelon plus your tomatoes at like 300 sq ft each. Did you grow the plants that big last year? How did you do ?

12/2/2008 7:34:43 PM

Alabama

When I picked my last melon in late Sep. I had vines growing ten feet out of my patch. I grew six last year and the ranged from 164lbs to 199lbs. I have very rich soil prior to my buying the property it was an open range pig farm that later was converted to a tomatoe farm.

12/3/2008 1:08:36 PM

sevierville, Tn

1SG , How many melons were on each plant ? Were they open polinated ?

12/3/2008 7:32:08 PM

Peace, Wayne

Owensboro, Ky.

1SG, what seeds did you grow...melon grower's seem to be looking for good seeds!!! Peace, Wayne

12/4/2008 5:03:41 PM

Alabama

Smokey Mtn Pumpkin, I only grow one per vine and yes I open pollinate. My seeds are from the Bright 246 year 2005.

I think the biggest reason for my good fortunes was a simple soil test through Auburn University. When I told them what I was growing they outlined what I needed to do as far as soil preperation, micro nutrients and fertilizers. The first year after following the recomendations I had about a 30% increase in size.

12/8/2008 8:12:01 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

I have a problem with soil tests, since I totally replace the soil under my plant each year. What I put in is a mixture of compost and manure. How do you measure that?

12/9/2008 10:02:41 AM

sevierville, Tn

MMM, you mean like dig it out with a backhoe/tractor and replace or just like a pit under the root/stump ?

12/9/2008 2:20:02 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

A backhoe would certainly help, but yes, I dig a pit just like certain pumpkin growers do. Usually about 5-6' in diameter and probably 1.5' deep.

I normally add a granular in the bottom of the pit and till it in. Then I layer various compost and manure in the pit, generally tilling the layers together. I mound at the top and put in the melon.

Then it get's the remay cover and the plant.

I also generally do a soil replacement under each of the plants I put in the garden. Pepper, tomato, you name it.

12/9/2008 3:50:04 PM

Dave Bhaskaran

Rochester, MN

James,
I did a soil test this year ( I dont' every year) to see how close I was...since I dig the big pumpkin pits and fill with 100% new stuff....same with watermelon..but not nearly as big. Anyways, I got back about a 6.9 PH (for example)..so I might what to lower it more next year...and maybe add less Lime. Anyways, one way to look at it.

12/9/2008 4:15:34 PM

Alabama

Hello folks,

I move my watermelon hills every year. I dig a 3 ft. deep hole by 5 ft wide, and backfill with manure, sand, topsoil and about 20lbs of 13-13-13 fertilizer.

However, this year I excavated an entire root system from one of my plants and found that it had one tap root and five verticle roots all of which were more than than 20ft. long averaging 1in. below the soil.. This year I am going to change the way I water and fertilize and see what kind of results I can Achieve.

12/9/2008 9:21:19 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

Yes, That's why I don't go so deep. I have also found that the roots spread across the surface and do not go deep.

1SG is that 20 pounds per hill or per patch? How wide an area do you spread that?

I generally use 10-10-10 since that's what is sold over at fleet farm.

12/10/2008 9:45:50 AM