Yep here is the total of my failed pumpkin planting experiment harvest. Pretty damned sad isn't it?
The funny thing is I have a few thousand plants still down there and blooming with bees still working the blooms. I am really not sure what happened but I have several theories and I am also thinking it was a combination of them more than any one problem in specific.
For one thing most of the seeds were from my explosively large Pumpkin harvest of 2013. I planted several different varieties and I think I got a lot of cross pollination not only between the Pumpkin types but also from the Squash and such. You will notice a green and orange stripped one in the back left of the picture and a couple of white gourds. I didn't plant any gourd seeds or anything other than standard orange pumpkins (with one exception).
So either my seeds were not viable due to cross pollination, which would explain why so many survived and bloomed but didn't bear fruit or perhaps the dry spell we got stunted them and caused them to not fruit. It was like they took off like wildfire and then just stopped growing all of a sudden and allowed the weeds to take over.
All the Pumpkins I got were small or "Pie Sized" at best but I didn't plant any Pie Pumpkins. I did throw in a few seeds of a green knobby variety and did actually get one very knobby orange Pumpkin so who really knows what happened.
I am not going to give up though. I am already making plans for doing things a bit differently next year and starting the crop earlier than I did this year to try and get more growth before the dry spell hits. All of these Pumpkins that I did manage to get came from the same general spot which is a lower area in the middle of the whole which leads me to believe that my lack of moisture theory has some relevance. I am also going to limit myself to one variety and buy all the seeds for the planting this Winter so their won;t be any nagging little cross pollination questions next year either.
Finally I am going to plant two sections widely apart next year. The main crop and then a second smaller field close in to my Western Apiary. The smaller one will have the advantage of being in a low lying area and having a spring right next to them so I can hand water if needed. That should go a long way in answering some of my questions into how the crop failed.
Let this be a lesson to all the "It ain't rocket science and I will plant when I need to" types out there. You better have all the particulars for your local conditions worked out before you need em because afterwards it will be too late.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Those white squash will still be edible though, they look like some of the squash that I grow. We prefer the smaller ones for us as they're much easier to prepare and store! I've had few experiments fail ober the years, what I think is worse is the ones who don't experiment and just do what they always do or what a book tells them. Keep at it!
ReplyDeleteKev - Well I think many of the seeds might have just not been able to produce but also that dry spell coupled with my waiting until June to plant might have made a difference. I don't know for sure but where the White ones came from I have no clue. I have never grown White gourds and only white pattipans so maybe they are cross with them.
DeleteGonna try a different area and early planting next season.
I have had pumpkins do like your crop and then planted them again this year and had good results. I didn't plant but a few hills as I prefer butternut squash over pumpkins and both did well. You might plant some corn in with them as it doesn't seem to bother the pumpkins. It is wise to hold back some seed and plan on some things just not growing in any given year. Also know what weeds to eat as they seem to grow fine.
ReplyDeleteSf - I had hoped on getting just a general Pumpkin seed that I could regrow myself each year by saving my own seeds. Ultimately that is my goal for most crops. Just finding the ONE type that does best and not worrying about cross pollination etc.
DeleteGuess it's back to the drawing board on that one :)
I got no pumpkins this year, either. Planted too late, and too little water. Better luck next year for both of us!
ReplyDeleteXL - Good to hear from ya!! Haven;t seen ya around in a while. Yes let's hope next year is better.
DeleteI had another horrible squash / pumpkin year. Last year's were all very, very tiny compared to previous years, and now this year I had vines and flowers GALORE, but very few fruits. On one melon plant I had dozens of flowers, but only ONE watermelon. Same for two separate cantaloupe plants...lots of vine & flowers, but only ONE melon each. Got me what it is. Oh, and I used store-bought seeds this year as well as saved seeds.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn - Well except for the bugs I had a pretty good Melon harvest and would have been great with Squash but the bugs sucked em dry quick. Apparently others in the area had a great Pumpkin year though because they are everywhere at least South of me.
DeletePP - it's never a fail when we learn something from it! i am with you in that i am planting only butternut squash next year and keeping them far away from the zucchini and the pumpkin. i always start 3 seeds of each, counting on 2 of each making it, and then have 2 plants of each. last year was a dismal fail in the punpkin/squash department but this year has been pretty good - nothing to brag about - but i planted the pattypan and buttercup squash right in the compost pile and they thrived. so that is a definite learning experience for us. you keep practicing, learning and sharing and all of us will learn right along with you. thanks buddy!
ReplyDeleteyour friend,
kymber
Kymber - Ya the problem is I have to figure out what I learned yet :)
DeleteThe Ram got mad when we stole his pattipan out of his special plant and ate it all to nothing the other day. Couldn't believe we had Squash this late in the year.
If you had a heatwave that lasted for several weeks or so while the plants were blooming, that may be why you didn't have much success and late bloomers. When the temps get above 95 or so and you don't get any cool down over night, the pollen pretty much gets cooked and becomes unviable. We have a similar outcome with our pumpkins and it was due to the never-ending heatwave we had over the summer. Last year's harvest was good even though we had a heatwave then, but it didn't last as long. So go figure. I think gardening can be more compared to a crap shoot game! ;-)
ReplyDeleteHobo - That is certainly a possible scenario. The plants started out good and then once they got up to about 2 foot vines or so most of them just seemed to stop growing. That was about the same time as the heatwave and dry spell hit. The plants continued to bloom but all but a few just kinda stopped growing. They didn't re-root themselves like Pumpkins do either. They just kinda stopped growing but remained alive.
DeletePP,
ReplyDeleteI'm so disappointed with those darn squash bug. I had beautiful pumpkins, watermelon, and squash.................not any more. All gone, next year I will plant one or the other but not all. And I will make sure it's far away from everything else.
Sandy - Interestingly enough I noted absolutely no Squashbug damage or bugs on the Pumpkin plants at all. I believe it is because where I planted them has seen no cucubits planted and was removed enough they didn't find them. As another side note after my plants were attacked and I noticed the Squash growing in the Ram's pen there were no bugs on that plant either. I am assuming it was long enough after they had killed all the ones in the garden they had moved on or died out.
DeleteNext year I am going to try some smaller variety specific gardens further removed and then work out some sort of rotation system.
We always seem to be in a battle with Mother Nature. So much so, that we are starting the plans for a very large green house. A friend of ours who replaces patio doors for a big box store, has been saving the doors and screens for us. We have a nice set of them, and we plan to use them to create the house. Screens will help control the temperature and shade cloth as well during the hotter months. We are just sick and tired of fighting bugs, and raccoons that seem to only take one bite out of EACH perfectly ripe tomato before I get a chance too!
ReplyDeleteWe struggle with the soil, too much or too little water, it just never seems to end.
As to the pumpkins; looks pretty good to me considering I didn't get a chance to grow very much this season. What I did grow, went to the bugs and critters...
Izzy - I must say I have little problems with coons and rabbits only at the first of the season. My dog is lazy or I would have much less I imagine :)
DeleteI think though where I have an advantage is that I am surrounded by corn and soybean so the critters rarely make it to my garden. A green house is on my plans list we have the perfect place for it actually if we close in a South facing deck but it isn't high enough yet to get funds transferred at this time.
I still am envious of your pigs though :(
My squash family plants didn't do much. I tried a late planting of patty pan squash, and there is still hope for them. I even had a huge volunteer that produced nothing but flowers.
ReplyDeleteRuss - I have heard that cross pollinated plants can sometimes only produce flowers and no fruit and it makes me wonder if maybe that is what happened to most of my plants since I was attempting to save seeds.
DeleteGuess I will find out next season.
If you did actually have thousands of plants and that is your harvest, you had an EPIC FAIL! How are you planning on feeding all of your loyal followers if you can't do any better than that? We will all starve to death! You need to get on the ball next year.:)
ReplyDeleteSD - I admit it was an epic fail. And yes I would say there were about a thousand little plants all told. I am still thinking I used cross bred seed and it just failed to produce more than anything else though.
DeleteNever fear I will work it out and send you some Pumpkin goo in tribute!!!
"Let this be a lesson to all the "It ain't rocket science and I will plant when I need to" types out there. You better have all the particulars for your local conditions worked out before you need em because afterwards it will be too late." Truer words were never spoken - and even within the same general climate area - in my case, within 5 miles - it can be different.
ReplyDeleteTB - Exactly. I typically think unable or unwilling when I see those kind of excuses anymore.
DeleteMy reply to people who say that is "Sh1t". You're hoing to need an awful lot of it if you're planning on planting anything where grass has been. At the moment farms will practically give it away. Once things go pear shaped manure will have a much greater value and even then only ifyou can transport it. So they can buy all the vacuum packed emergency seeds they like but in unimproved land they will do diddly squat .
DeleteOf course thats before you even consider that your first harvest could be months away!
So manypeople think farming is easy, it's not. What's worse organic farming is even harder and more labour intensive. I should know I've been doing it for decades. Modern chemicals exist because of the higher yields and lower labour costs. Weeding is far more labour intensive!
Anon - You are correct in every way. Even now I have people asking me for the proceeds of my stall cleaning or loafing shed grading. So far I have always told em no because I use it myself. As it is I don't have enough to fertilize my hay fields anyway and have to buy commercial stuff about every other year.
Delete