| How do you grow Pumpkins ? |
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HOW DO YOU GROW PUMPKINS? YES TO PUMPKINS! A: Dear Julie, the answer to your question is YES, you can grow pumpkins in a Square Foot Garden. They are grown on vertical frames just like tomatoes and melons. Check out all the details in the book, in Chapters 8 and 9 about vertical gardening. START SMALL
Pumpkins should be planted 1 plant per 2 square feet. Depending on the variety used, some pumpkin vines send out a lot of side branches while other varieties don't. If you have a variety with many side branches, prune off most of those side branches and let the main stem grow. Start with smaller sized pumpkins to get experience for one season before trying the larger varieties. BEST MATERIAL
After 25 years of experimenting and testing new products, I found that electrical conduit is still the cheapest, strongest and best material to use. I do not like PVC pipe because it eventually will bend and break and destroy your whole vertical garden and just when your tomatoes are getting ripe and ready to pick, along comes a fall storm with lots of wind and rain. You can use synthetic string tied as shown in the book, but the new nylon netting is really great if you can find it, but let your fingers do the walking and call around to all of the nurseries and garden supply centers asking for it. It comes in 4-foot wide widths and is about 10 feet long in a small package and sells for under $10.00. It is white and lasts forever. It is really great stuff and yet it is soft so it won't hurt the plants like wire does.STEEL IS STRONG AND CHEAP
Pumpkins need extra-strong vertical frames. I still feel very strongly that metal supports are the only sure supports for heavy plants. Remember, we grow vertically quite differently than any other gardening method. Our frames stand 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Unless you go to a very large size of pipe, like one inch, which then becomes very expensive, PVC does not have the strength it needs for tomato plants or squash or pumpkins or watermelons. The last year we were at Thanksgiving Point (a display garden in Utah), we had pumpkins and one weighed 35 lbs. and was growing 7 feet in the air. The vertical supports there were steel fence posts, extended with the electrical conduit that is described in the book. If you would rather use rebar (used for the regular vertical frames), use extra long pieces cut 18-24 inches instead of the usual 12 inches. You can use wood and you can use PVC and it might hold up for awhile, but eventually in the fall when it is filled with plants, and you have a heavy rain, then windstorm, that structure is going to come down. I've seen it year after year after year. Best wishes, Mel B. |
