Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

OK. I'm in Perth and my first lot of pumpkin vines got pulled out as they had run their race without having any female flowers. I planted 2 more vines from seed a while ago.
Now I have just got 2 pumpkins to start growing (size of a golf ball at the moment).
My question is: have I got a chance this late in the season of them maturing?

My vines were planted late. I have a range in sizes. The first frost will let me know how I went. Up until then I'm giving them plently of water and fert to speed them up. If they are protected from the frost you may get them to size. Cut of the growing tip of the vine to incourage the plant to put all its energy into the fruit. But wait for them to put on a little size so you can tell if they were fertilized. Otherwise they will rot on the vine anyway.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

Mine set late also this year. Quite a few are just reaching size (though not maturity), while others are still small. For the first time ever, the chooks have decided that pecking pumpkins is a good food source DOH.

OU i posted elsewhere that had exactly that problem, a couple of vines I left going have now fruited but temps have dropped rapidly so doubt they will come to much

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Cheers
Nocky
Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. Doug Larson
My Weather Site, going 12 years +
Nocky's Backyard
My Aquaponics System

Probably depends on a few things, variety for one I'd imagine. As with all plants there are probably varieties that will perform better in cooler weather.

It will be interesting to see how the late crops go...

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Bringing Food Production Home

NFI EB but a lot of people had similar problems, I had a couple of South African Plants and also some QLD Blues and both had the same problem in different parts of the garden, rock melons the same, and Tigger Melon in AP had heaps of flowers and only 4 female that all went to fruit

_________________
Cheers
Nocky
Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. Doug Larson
My Weather Site, going 12 years +
Nocky's Backyard
My Aquaponics System

Last year I found that being such a wet season (wetter this year) I got plenty of pumpkins but they did not last like they normally do. I grow Jap which would normally last for months, but I ended up with rotten ones after a couple of months. Perhaps they were late also and didn't cure properly due to the drop in temps??

I'm waiting for the frost but was also thinking of covering one of the vines. Mate grows them all year. Bit like me with planting out of season.

_________________
To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

My vine is massive (though smaller than previous years) so no chance of covering. Hey I came across a pic of an earlier pumpkin crop when looking for the garlic one, will post it.

This year the vine has even found its way up to metres onto the pool deck and has 2 pumpkins up there. One year I found several pumpkins hanging 3 metres up a tree

Here it is. This was about 70% of the crop from memory.

Mine are up too trees and growing into the lane way. Going to plant next years vines next to a trellis. I have a spare block and was toying with the idea of planting 20ish vines over there. just run a dripper to them. Will have to give away a few pumpkins tho.
The jap looks different when it is forming while hanging from a tree.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

Bloody hell..... Thats very impressive VB...

Any idea what variety they are?

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Bringing Food Production Home

Look like Japs, don't they.

Yep - Jap. Bloody chooks are shitting me. Picking the pumpkins (this year's crop) off 1 by 1.

Your chooks are free ranging VB? Oh well, at least the harvest didn;t take long then...

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Bringing Food Production Home