damaclese

OK guys and gals iv got the bug for big food this year! So i sowed some Atlantic Pumpkin seeds. Has any one grown this one? If your not familiar this is the pumpkin that reaches up to 1500 or even 2000 lb there big! So how much space is this thing going to take up. becaus its so hot here I'm planting in only 6hr of sun a day. I'm also setting them in a 32" pots that will be put in the ground. I'm doing this for ease of care to help contain the roots so i can deliver water to them in the most economical way. I have read that they take tuns of water when the fruit starts to get big like hundreds of gal. a week is that true? I'v also planted some vary interesting vintage watermelons.
The variety is called moon and stars. I guess this was a seed that was recovered from the wilds of Missouri. Was popular in the late 19cen but fell out of favor then was lost. Some one cam across some growing out in the woods collected the seeds and started growing them again. They are suppose to produce a fruit in the 60 to 70lb rang. So again I'm going big this year. i have a plane for doing this its not just to grow big food. I'm thinking that the massive vines will cover a wide area and there buy cut down on the heat absorption in and around my yard. "I hope so any way" it cant hurt. I grew sweet potato vines last year but they didn't cover enough to help that i could see any way! Any advice would be helpful particularly fert and water requirements. Thanks for suffering threw my triable spelling every one!
PaulO

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lorax

Well, if they're in pots then it will limit how long the vines will get - in my experience rootbound squashes or melons of any type won't get very big. (even in a 32" pot - they get pretty extensive roots once they're grown up.)

I've grown the Atlantic pumpkins before - my biggest gourd was about 1000 lbs and we had to cut it up right there in the garden because four of us couldn't lift it up the stairs into the house. I would be really curious to see how they do in the desert. They will drink like fishes once the fruit is set - that is part of how the fruit gets big.

The Moon and Stars watermelons sound really interesting too. Watermelons, as the name suggests, are also thirsty plants if you want good fruit from them. I'd say daily watering is a must with these guys - they'll drink just about everything you can give them once they start growing - a gallon a day per plant is just a baseline.

Your plan for cutting the heat absorption in the yard should work fine - just bear in mind that the leaves will wilt and get crispy if you don't water every single day.

Do keep us posted!

damaclese

well in the high summer i water every day any way so this won't be any different

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Worm_Farmer

1000LB!! OMG How many differnt faces can you carve into that guy on Halloween? Could you cut it from the vine and roll it out to the front yard?

lorax

I did an entire haunted town scene, but I doubt anybody saw it. I was living on the face of a fairly steep hill and it was growing in my backyard. Getting into the front yard would have involved rolling it up a 60 degree grade, which would have been harder than carrying it up the stairs and into the house.

It made tasty pies, though, all the way to thanksgiving the next year.

Tog Tan

Hey Beth, what other stuff don't you plant?! This monster-kin sounds like a fun thing to plant by the way you talk about it. Thanks for the info. So Pauly, another new game in town for the bored, huh? Thanks for the posting!

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

lorax

What don't I plant, you ask? That's got to be a current list. I've tried growing just about everything at one point or another.

Eggplants, scrapie beans, pepino melons, and okra are things I don't currently grow.

On my list to try are Mortinos (Andean highbush blueberries), Capuli (Andean green cherries) and Pink Ullcu (Oxalis tuberosum of some description).

I find myself kind of wanting to grow Atlantic Pumpkin again just to see how big it gets if there's no winter to set it back.... I hear that Kombucha squashes are only supposed to be 3 lbs, but the last one I put in the coldroom to mature was well over 25 lbs.... I've also grown zucchinis too large to put in the fridge.

Bob

Hey Pauolo, if you can supply enough water "moon and stars is pretty easy to grow from seed. Dill's Atlantic Giant however is going to be a challenge. They are VERY HEAVY feeders and need a ton of water.........literallly. The vines are huge so you need lots of room for them. There are a couple of good books out on just growing giant pumpkins. I would check them out before the season starts so you can get an idea what lengths people go to,to get the big ones.

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damaclese

well lets see i have a side yard thats about 40 x 30 thats going to have to do i figure i can point the vines in the direction i want them to grow and make some circles about the yard if need be the only thing growing in that side are the 3" wide strip that i have all the tropicals planted in and I'm sure the vines can grow over the feet of my Bananas i think that would be a good thing then i don't have to mulch LOL so you see I'm all about the Plan! i have to try to be as thrifty as possible you know every thing in Vegas has to be trucked in from hundreds of ml away even HD can be pricey on some stuff besides its a good thing to save money all the wile you are having fun

PS I'm not Board I'm just entertainment challenged!

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lorax

Just watch out that the vines don't start climbing your bananas. They will try - mine took over a mountain ash tree and were heading up the elms when the frost came.

Tog Tan

Stop the temptation! Gotta grow it...gotta grow it...just gotta.....

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

lorax

Go ahead - you'd probably get an award-winning gourd off of it. So would I - given our conditions: hot, rainy, no real winter to speak of...

damaclese

thanks for all the grate info every one but it is funny how the same 4 or 5 people are the only ones that ever reply to my threads? i must have been a bad boy in my last life who wouldn't want to talk about a 1200lb pumpkin! LOL well on the bright side its sorta intimate so i say get a cup of jo and lets talk Pumpkin lol

OK so heres the plan i have a really old lantana in the north east corner of the side yard iv been planing on moving its a leftover from the previous owners sad attempt to land scape going to move that to the front yard and then I'm dumping about 100lb of organically enriched well draining soil on that spot thats were I'm going to put the pumpkin it will have 40ft of traveling space if i point the vines on the the long axises of the space then the watermelons going in the north west corner and i can point the vines to grow along the retaining wall that edges the walk way should look nice with all those big green leafs framing the walk way Hope any way and the best part is no stooping to reach the WM vines I'm old you know LOL J/K now what do you all think i should put under the melons and pumkin to keep it off the gravel which I'm sure will damaged the bottoms if i don't do something i was thinking of pouring sand under the fruit?

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Bob

Hey P, sand will work, even cardboard ,plywood pretty much anything. No matter what they will still be dicolored somewhat on the underside. No big deal though. I grew a bunch off A. G. seedlings last year and ended up giving them away because I didn't want to dedicate all the space after reading up on them. Would love to see how you do though..........and any of you guys in the tropics too since I've no idea how a pumpkin would do there.

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damaclese

thanks Bob will do. I don't know about the tropics. I live in the middle of the Mohave desert. that present its own set of problems. I know from reading in the paper that othere people have grown thees pumpkins successfully here. I think i have to shade the fruit from what Iv read.

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Tog Tan

Thanks for starting this thread Paulo, so where is a seed source for this? I am gonna give it a shot though this is not something I normally do. Getting it to max size sounds like an exciting project.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

damaclese

tog i got these seed believe it or not from Lows i was looking at them and saw the Orange packet picked it up as a low and behold there they were right in my hand were a bit price 3.75 but they are organic burpy seeds i suppose you could go to burpy on line but i dint see them on the web site OK i am off to finish amending the pumpkin hill i moved the Lantana after lunch

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lorax

Tog, you can probably get seeds on eBay. Best of luck!

damaclese

here are some pictures of the pumpkins the first ones didn't transplant well and died so i had to restart them thees are about 2 months old they drink water like its going out of stile when the heat is high they need water two times a day and they haven't even set fruit yet there producing male flowers at this point they get a bud at every leaf junction

you can just see the edg of my hand thats sould tell you how big the leafs are! id

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damaclese

here are some pictures of the pumpkins the first ones didn't transplant well and died so i had to restart them thees are about 2 months old they drink water like its going out of stile when the heat is high they need water two times a day and they haven't even set fruit yet there producing male flowers at this point they get a bud at every leaf junction

you can just see the edge of my hand thats should tell you how big the leafs are! id say there about 2ft across remember thees are vary young plants

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