Pumpkin Patch Update May 30, 2016

So it's been about two weeks, and the patch is off to a great start this season. I actually placed the seeds in hills this time to help minimize the clustering of vines. The pictures below were taken today, May 30. The temperatures have been in the upper seventies most of the week and exceedingly humid! In fact, we have had over four inches of rain in the last nine days. That much rain is terrible for pumpkins. However, they're still coming up. The soil really has not had a chance to dry out in the last ten days. However, yesterday and today have been dry and warm and that has helped some early growth so far. Taking a look at the photo below, you can see the small, two-leaf plants on the dry mound. These are my Jack-o-lanterns coming up. There are five pumpkin plants on the mound.

I will let these continue to grow for about two weeks and then I will thin the mound to two or three of the best plants. This particular mound gets the least amount of sunlight each day because it sits near a pin-oak that shades it longer in the morning through about 12:30 in the afternoon, so i will be interesting to see if these really mature over time. There are some weeds beginning to grow in and I will probably pull in the morning.

This second picture is the largest mound and as you can see, all eight seeds germinated and are growing. I will again thin to maybe the three healthiest and biggest plants in about about two weeks.

The forecast is supposed to be warm and dry, with a few chances of rain throughout the week. I may not have to water with the soaker hose yet, which is o.k., and as I mentioned earlier, that is a good thing that I will discuss in later posts. Thinning to two or three plants per hill in the long run will hopefully net me about six good pumpkins by the Labor Day or so, but we will see how it all goes. Thanks for reading!

The Tempest