pumpkin plants not growing well.

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rcredmon

New Member
Hello,

At the beginning of spring, my two year old and I planted six pumpkin seeds in a container. I did this with two containers actually, so I planted a total of twelve seeds. (of course I now know that you shouldn't do that). Later on after they began to sprout I built two raised bed planters. One of them is two feet by six feet, and the other is two by two and is three foot tall. In the 2X6 I separated the root ball of one of the container...unbeknownst to me, pumpkins produce hair thin roots that are just as curly as their vines. So inevitably, I ended up tearing a few roots in the process. I assume they've spent a tremendous amount of energy growing new roots, instead of growing up. Those plants are not growing very large, and are not growing quickly. They have blooms, but a couple of them aren't even three inches tall.

In the 2x2x3 container, I just put the whole root ball in without breaking it up...and these plants are growing like crazy. So...my question is, will a small pumpkin plant still produce pumpkins? Or...is there some sort of fertilizer I can use to speed up the process?

Thanks,

Robby.
 
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Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
I can only speculate from what you have written, but I don't believe pumpkins transplant well and you would be better off direct seeding. Since your soil will most likely be the same in both planters, I assume there was sufficient root damage to keep the plants in the one planter from taking off. If they are still alive though, there is still a chance they will recover. I think I would snip off any blooms though on the sick plants and direct any growth into the plant itself. Since the other plants are growing well, I don't believe it is a soil/fertilizer issue and fertilizer may even be a detriment.
 

rcredmon

New Member
I can only speculate from what you have written, but I don't believe pumpkins transplant well and you would be better off direct seeding. Since your soil will most likely be the same in both planters, I assume there was sufficient root damage to keep the plants in the one planter from taking off. If they are still alive though, there is still a chance they will recover. I think I would snip off any blooms though on the sick plants and direct any growth into the plant itself. Since the other plants are growing well, I don't believe it is a soil/fertilizer issue and fertilizer may even be a detriment.


Ok, I will definitely try that. The learning curve for gardening is pretty steep lol. I've learned a lot of lessons this year already that I'll institute next season. Thanks for the help.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
You're welcome. You have a long growing season down there in Texas, but I know it can get pretty hot. I spent the early years of my life down there in Three Rivers and Sherman.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
Just to be on the safe side, you might want to invest in a soil test kit to be sure your nutrients are what they should be.
 

EdwinNJ

New Member
I would use liquid , soluble (not organic, chemical, where they use direct ammonia, nitrate, superphosphate and potash) fertilizer, which acts fast.
I dunno if it was the splitting of the plants and root damage, that sounds a bit odd to me - I'm pretty sure I've done that without problem. Then again, I usually transplant individual plants from those small 4-plant plater thingies, though I am usualy more rough than I should be with the plants. The poster above is correct about snipping the blooms - though I'm surprised a small plant that's not growing fast is blooming, even if just male flowers.

What the poster said above isn't corect about not taking well to tranplansting. Squashes and to some extent cucurbits in general, are the perfect kind of plant for transplanting, they're vines, they can even root from along the stems. Cucumbers less so I would imagine, but melons and squashes really are The-Thing-like vining plants that can grow from any spot on the "body", to some extent.
 

rcredmon

New Member
Just to be on the safe side, you might want to invest in a soil test kit to be sure your nutrients are what they should be.

Yeah I may do that. I did snip off the blooms and they seem to be slowly growing a little more. but the thing of it is, that I've been using rabbit compost tea, miracle gro, and epsom salt, on all of my plants, and they're the only ones that don't seem to be reacting to it. And I've got the same soil in that bed as I do in the taller one that the other pumpkins are in. Overall I'm not too terribly concerned though. If these don't end up producing fruit, next year I'll know what not to do.
 

rcredmon

New Member
I would use liquid , soluble (not organic, chemical, where they use direct ammonia, nitrate, superphosphate and potash) fertilizer, which acts fast.
I dunno if it was the splitting of the plants and root damage, that sounds a bit odd to me - I'm pretty sure I've done that without problem. Then again, I usually transplant individual plants from those small 4-plant plater thingies, though I am usualy more rough than I should be with the plants. The poster above is correct about snipping the blooms - though I'm surprised a small plant that's not growing fast is blooming, even if just male flowers.

What the poster said above isn't corect about not taking well to tranplansting. Squashes and to some extent cucurbits in general, are the perfect kind of plant for transplanting, they're vines, they can even root from along the stems. Cucumbers less so I would imagine, but melons and squashes really are The-Thing-like vining plants that can grow from any spot on the "body", to some extent.

Yeah, I'm using liquid fertilizers once a week, Miracle gro one week, rabbit compost tea the next, and then epsom salt once every two weeks. Next year I'm going to prepare the bed, and plant the seed in it, or just one seed in a jiffy pot. Either way, I won't be trying to plant several in one container again. And I plan to be better prepared next year too. I just kind of jumped into it this year on a whim.
 

EdwinNJ

New Member
Yeah in-situ is awesome, except for the one big downside that you have to every once in a while crouch down, look carefully and pick out all the little weeds, being careful to visually identify and not pick your little seedling. This can be a bitch if you don't have room to crouch, like I don't
 

rcredmon

New Member
So...an update on my pumpkins....the small bed seems to be showing some growth now that it's gotten hotter, and after I pinched off the blossoms. But, the large planter that was doing so well is slowly being taken over by powdery mildew, despite my best efforts to control it. I'm wondering if I should prune the leaves that have it, so that it doesn't spread farther? I feel that if I don't, I'm going to lose all five of the vines.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
If you have a county extension office anywhere near you, they should be able to tell you a course of action.
 

rcredmon

New Member
Another update...as of this morning, I've lost my entire large planter of pumpkins. I just got back in the house after tossing the lot of them. I was going to try to control the powdery mildew, but upon inspection, I noticed several of the vines had split and looked rotted. Then I saw the maggot white body of a vine borer grub.

Now...My question is this. What's the best prevention against vine borers? My smaller bed seems to be doing well still. So I'm going to nurture it as much as possible.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
The state universities sponsor extension offices in each county. In our state they are sponsored by Oregon State University. The extension services here are always in the county seat and should be listed in your phone book or web site under county offices. Most, if not all, extension services sponsor master gardener programs and the master gardeners so trained become the resource for others. The thing about extension services is that the resource people there are familiar with local problems and conditions.
 


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