Growing a giant pumpkin

Plant each seed with pointed end downward, 1 inch deep in rich

After planting the seeds, water only enough so that there is just a trace of moisture. Remember that the seeds will rot if the ground is cool and too wet.

Protect the young plants from wind as much as possible, and cover them at night if there is any danger of frost.

Do not have plants any closer than 10 feet to each other.

The plant will usually have two or three main vines, and you can have a really good pumpkin on each of these. Do not let more than one pumpkin grow on each.

If you don't see bees working the flowers you may need to hand pollinate, or the pumpkins will shrivel, and fall off the vine. To hand pollinate, get up early in the morning and pick several newly opened male flowers. Carefully, tap the male flower so that the pollen falls onto the female flower. Repeat with two or three male flowers for each female. To tell them apart, the female flowers will have a fat bud under the flower, which will later develop into the pumpkin and does not have pollen.

The vines have the ability to send down more roots wherever they have a little soil around the base of the leaves. You should encourage the vines to do so as much as possible by heaping up just a little bit of soil around the base.

As the maturing pumpkin swells, its weight can pull it off the vine. Using wood or foam blocks, raise the vine up at the area of the pumpkin. Six to eight inches above the normal level of the ground is usually enough to keep the pumpkin from pulling itself off the vine.

Growing a giant pumpkin

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