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Post by Reagan on Jun 28, 2017 20:36:39 GMT -6
Has anyone planted pumpkins for a plot?
I have some volunteer pumpkin plants in my garden. I am amazed at the rate of growth.
I was considering starting some in one of my clover plots. Will deer eat the foliage? Will they eat the fruit? Are they worth trying?
I think the merlot drinking California loudmouth used to talk about planting them. Not sure if I've read about anyone else trying them.
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Post by biglakebass on Jun 28, 2017 20:49:24 GMT -6
Did it a few years. Lots of work to keep the weeds clean so the punkins can reach big size. Deer started nibbling on them early up here when I tried. Mine were up in Ottertail County which is 125 miles away...... Too much work, for a short return. Impossible to keep deer off them long enough so they could all reach max maturity. I toss them in the backyard now after halloween and they kick the shit out of them and clean em up. They love em. The absolute BEST is Atlantic Giants. I dont know what it is, but that shit is candy to them. I got them up to about 100 lbs when I grew them a couple times. I pissed on the punkins, sprayed them with Irish Spring soap water, and something else. WAYYYY too much work to keep them untouched living 125 miles from where I had them planted. The hundred pounders were brought home for the kids..... Not for the deer. A coworker of mine used to grow them for the pumpkin contest in Golden Valley(home to the highest gay population in the state of MN I might add). His biggest was 450 lbs. I got the punkins after he got them weighed so I could dump it on my sidewalk for halloween. I got lots of props for punkins the size of Roseanne Barr.
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Post by Catscratch on Jun 28, 2017 20:51:22 GMT -6
I grew them in a plot last yr. My plots are very varied and it's not always obvious if something is being used (I plant all sorts of crap! I'll plant anything I find in closeout at the garden section; okra, beans, grocery story beans such as lima or black eyed peas, pumpkins, etc.). With that said I think the deer hit the pumpkins but I'm not 100% sure it was deer. I planted them again this yr. I completely surrounded a plot by planting on it's boarder. Inside is sunflowers, millet, and clovers. I figure if nothing eats them they will still be cool to have at Halloween, or my kids love to shoot them at close range with a shotgun so it's Win-win situation.
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Post by biglakebass on Jun 28, 2017 20:56:10 GMT -6
Here was the 450 lb punkin I got from my buddy.
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Post by Catscratch on Jun 28, 2017 21:04:21 GMT -6
Here was the 450 lb punkin I got from my buddy. That is sooooo cool! I have several vines of "giant varieties" planted right now. I hope to get something like that or even your 100lb one would be awesome.
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Punkins?
Jun 28, 2017 21:05:17 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by kabic on Jun 28, 2017 21:05:17 GMT -6
I started some at home once, and then transplanted. The deer pulled up the little starter plants.
They do better planted on site. I normally save seeds from a previous years pumpkin.
Got some going this year, but I mostly plant for the kids. I think the deer also like the flowers.
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Post by biglakebass on Jun 28, 2017 21:06:53 GMT -6
Key is to grow ONE pumpkin on the vine and fertilze the shit out of the plant..... I think it was daily Miracle Grow. I dont even remember now. Been several years since I dicked with them and my buddy gave up too. He couldnt compete with the retired guys that had 1000 pound ones. HAAAAAAAAAAA
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Post by biglakebass on Jun 28, 2017 21:08:28 GMT -6
Atlantic Giant.... Get em if you have the time and space to grow em. They are so fucking cool.
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Post by sd51555 on Jun 28, 2017 22:14:44 GMT -6
Has anyone planted planted pumpkins for a plot? I have some volunteer pumpkin plants in my garden. I am amazed at the rate of growth. I was considering starting some in one of my clover plots. Will deer eat the foliage? Will they eat the fruit? Are they worth trying? I think the merlot drinking California loudmouth used to talk about planting them. Not sure if I've read about anyone else trying them. I was one of the lucky ones that had deer that completely left the plants alone, and didn't start in on the actual pumpkins until November. Our challenge has always been growing food that lasts into November. Pumpkins made it. I wanted to do it again this year, but those plans were thwarted by ma nature and bigger projects. Last fall I scored a pallet of pumpkin halves (someone scooped the seeds out) and about a hundred acorn squash. I dumped them in front of a camera after the season was done. I was certain this was going to be a huge bust because the pumpkins were moldy slop by the time I got them out there. The squash were still rock hard. Come spring, you couldn't find a seed or stem from any of it. Total demolition. I put a boot through each of the squash to help them get an edge to bite onto. Check out my 2015 hunting footage video below. At the 1:30 mark, you can see a button buck gnawing on a pumpkin we grew in our plot. He was there for a long time chewing on it. We added nitrogen when we planted, and one more time mid season. It was new for the deer, and it got cold that year. After we were done hunting, we took what pumpkins we had grown and piled them up in front of the camera and put a boot to them. Deer had them gone in two nights. In hindsight, bigger pumpkins would have probably been easier for the deer to get on. These were the size of min-basketballs to volleyballs. They were pretty hard and temps weren't cooperating to give the deer the ability to stomp them open. I was nervous about being able to get them to maturity, so I went with an 85 day pumpkin. This year, I bought a 110 day pumpkin (15-25lb range), and the seed is still in my shedroom.
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Post by biglakebass on Jun 28, 2017 22:17:43 GMT -6
Come on SD.... Man up and go Atlantic Giant!!!!!
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Post by sd51555 on Jun 28, 2017 22:24:28 GMT -6
Come on SD.... Man up and go Atlantic Giant!!!!! You know, that would be something to watch. Build an enclosure and grow a few plants to see if one of them big SOB's could be grown in the wild like that. I'd set a camera on video to capture the deer trying to bust that big bastard open and eat the whole thing.
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Post by jbird on Jun 29, 2017 8:49:01 GMT -6
Turns out deer will eat anything over time. I know of a large hobby farmer that has issues with deer eating his pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon and the like as well. He grows enough of them that it isn't a huge deal, but I had the chance to ask him about it, because I had heard of folks having deer eat them before and he confirmed that - yes, deer will eat them. He said he sees the does teaching their fawns how to bust them open to get the good stuff out.
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Post by Reagan on Jun 29, 2017 13:03:41 GMT -6
Sounds like it is all about the fruit.
I had hoped they would eat the leaves as well.
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Post by biglakebass on Jun 29, 2017 13:27:12 GMT -6
they will eat the greens a bit, but the punkins are the dessert.
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Post by Catscratch on Jun 30, 2017 5:53:02 GMT -6
I have big pumpkins in the garden. Atlantic, Big Max, and a couple of others including a giant white pumpkin. It's crazy that their leafs are so big! I have some bordering my sunflower patch too. They are a mix of crazy shaped ones.
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