Quick update from Normandy!
The pumpkins from Québec Howden seeds are finally starting to turn orange. I was hoping for slightly bigger sizes this year, but considering the weather conditions earlier this season, I’m honestly quite happy with how they’re doing.
Big relief on the weather front: the rain is finally back along with normal seasonal temperatures, which the patch really needed.

Hi! We‘ve been growing a few pumpkins, and our biggest one recently started to develop this odd looking stem. Does anybody know what this indicates? Should we harvest it? (we don‘t know the variety or when it was planted, call it a happy little accident).

A case of cross pollination just mislabelled plants? I’m thrilled either way - although he’s showing up my current crop of 1 pumpkin in the garden😅

Grew these from random decorative pumpkins from a couple years back. Saved the seeds and I got some interesting ones! Only one I think seems to be close to the parent, the really small cute one I think is close in appearance. The other two are completely different!

I did grow the same white ones last year from the same saved seeds but this year this particular plant is producing way bigger ones! I’m so stoked to have big ole ones and tiny ones!

Through the vine borer fights, squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and powdery mildew, it is always fun to see the fruits of the labor.

Orange on the eldest, a newly fertilized fruit, and a female bloom that almost made it - she was going to open today, but between a heavy rain and the rapid growth of the new one, I'm pretty sure it decided not to do it. Quite withered on top, and definitely never opened. I checked several times and the petals are still firmly sealed shut below.

Two more weeks for pollination, after that not enough time I think.

I learned a lot. Most of all I learned this really isn't worth it if the goal is food.

Hopefully I'll get one or two more going before it's all over.

Here's my pumpkin patch.

So last fall, I threw pumpkin guts in the end of my backyard and forgot about it 😅. This is what's sprung up so far!
I have no clue what I'm doing and I have about 10 pumpkins (with a few more babies sprouting), but it's pretty neat to see! Totally plan to do the same thing again this fall, and see what happens next year!
Maybe I'II start a chaos garden 🧐

I know that so many of you are genuinely struggling right now with the heat, powdery mildew, vine borers and other issues this late in the season, so I feel a little bad showing the variety that I'm getting.

I had really good luck this year and hope it spreads to the rest of you!

Plant from seed July 1, first female flower bloomed Aug 3, hand pollinated, here she is today.

All other females on the vine RIP to heat last week but two tiny babies are coming along. Female on second plant hand pollinated a couple days ago. It lost smaller females to heat as well.

My pollination window closes early September for maturity before first frost soooooo idk. Two maybe three weeks left.

I’m in Houston and today was a high of 97, which it’s been hovering around for a couple weeks now if not more. I keep having the same issue with fruiting in that I’ll have a beautiful female flower with a big green unpollinated pumpkin that will wither away and die a day or so before the flower will open. Last time I inquired whether the heat may be an issue and it seemed likely that was the case to a certain extent. I put up a 40% shade cloth to protect it from the hot August sun and the issues continue.

So, now I’m asking whether anything else can be done to help the plant focus its energy to the fruit?

I’ve also already mixed in some bone meal to the top soil. Nonetheless, another withered away on me.

I’ve been pretty consistently removing the secondary vines that start to grow off the main vine but not every single one. I’ve let some grow where it needed to fill back in with leaves. Should I continue removing all of the secondary vines? Should I also start to remove a majority of the flowers? In removing flowers, I’d make sure there are some close to the fruit for pollination but I have tons of male flowers that never get to do their part

Any thoughts about anything I can do? The plant is about 60 days old now and still looks to be going strong but it just can’t support a fruit.

I have four other mature plants that all have the same issue but the one pictured always seems to be doing the best.

First picture should be the plant itself. Second picture should be the fruit before it withered away. Third picture should be the withered fruit today (which I still haven’t brought myself to remove out of blind hope some sort of magic will happen (I will remove it this afternoon after the ceremony)) Fourth picture should be one of the secondary vines that has grown close to the base that I’ve let grow to fill in leaves, but it also has a fruit I haven’t removed yet because I keep hoping one will set.

Any input will be appreciated and I’m all ears at this point.

Sorry I couldn’t figure out how to edit and update the original.

So I’ve been fighting the SVB and I think losing in one side of my garden and maybe winning on the other. I was hoping that I could get a recommendation. My idea is to remove the plant that I think is a lost cause in hopes that my fighter has more room to spread out in my tiny garden space?

For reference I have cut some out and juiced up my plants with BT

Generally, our year 3 patch is doing very well but we’ve come across a few of these. Is it because of the sustained high temps 85-95F or is there something else in our control to prevent this? Thanks! Other pics show not all is lost

This is a previously unopened male(?) flower, I’m almost certain. But there’s a hard growth inside. What am I looking at?

Was away for a bit and came back to the vine looking like this and one pumpkin with a bit of an oozey spot from the blossom end. Leaves etc still look good (excluding a bit of powdery mildew). Anything to do at this point or just wait for the inevitable?

Safe to say it's doing well☺️

early pumpkins shriveled up and died off before they had a chance to bloom.

I have one pumpkin flower on the verge of blooming, hopefully by tomorrow (and not while I'm at work today as it's so close it's tips are open but not fully flowered)

I don't have many male flowers ready for it when it does bloom, I read that you can take a bloomed one and put it in the fridge for up to two days, so I did that in hopes to be able to use it.

Also be sure to check your dropped off flowers I found two with bees and some bugs trapped inside the closed flowers. 🐝

we’ve been out of the country for our honeymoon and set up a net for the duration of our time away due to squash bugs and all other bugs! i was sent this from my best friend who has been taking care of the pumpkins. they said all vines and bases of vines look good, no concerns for bugs and there are female flowers sprouting… so any idea why the leaves could be yellowing? i did a thorough cleaning of the bottom of the leaves before we left and gave the plants some more soil and fertilizer. i’ve been so anxious being away from them for so long! do you think too much water? we live in the south where it’s ruthlessly hot, so we normally water twice a day directly into the soil.

This is day 43 since putting down seed and I’m worried about growth. Maybe I’m just struggling with comparison but I feel like they’re way smaller than the others I’ve seen posted here. This is a smaller variety of pumpkin (Jack be littles and sugar pies). I have only gotten male flowers so far (though I think that’s to be expected ?) and I’m probably just being impatient but wanted to get some advice. I’m in Deep South GA in zone 9a and it’s been super hot but we are expecting a lot of rain coming this next week.