I’m growing a Big Max pumpkin this year. This is my second year gardening and first time trying to grow a pumpkin.
Does anyone know if this is a male or female flower? I think I’m supposed to seal the female ones until later but also think I remember reading the male ones come first.
You can generally tell by how the flower is attached; male flowers will be right off the stem while female flowers will have a little bulb at the base. You may wish to cut back the flowers that are there currently, to encourage more vegetative growth. Getting a fruit to maturity is energy intensive for plants, and more leaves means more energy to make them when the plant grows a new set of flowers.
Either low on nitrogen or the soil pH is way off. You should have a lot more leaves before it starts flowering, and they should be greener. Some fish fertilizer might pep it up.
Alright I think I’m super low on nitrogen then, crap. What is that, a liquid?
It can be either. You can get slow release non urea based osmocote stuff for pumpkins as they are very hungry. Consider putting some peas or beans in there after the pumpkin is done to help recruit fungi to convert your nitrogen into a useable form. Since it’s your first year you might have just had too young compost
I was planning on doing a cover crop this fall. This is a 4 foot square raised bed. I used Miracle Gro Raised Bed soil and nothing else. Maybe that’s why lol.
Yes. You don’t have to use fish fertilizer, any nitrogen fertilizer should do the trick. I find fish fertilizer helps build good soil over time though. Also, it won’t burn your plants, so it’s a bit more user friendly than chemical fertilizer.
Usually it comes in a plastic jug and you have to dilute it quite a bit before using. Just follow the instructions on the package.
Once the pumpkins start growing it’s gonna get pretty potassium hungry. You can switch over to a seaweed fertilizer to get nice big pumpkins. But it needs lots of leaves and plenty of sun first, to fix the necessary carbon.
Alright my fish fertilizer came in today (lordy what a smell) and I’ve fertilized. I will update in a week or so! Thanks!
All my plants have been so small all year and I really doubt I’m going to get much of a harvest, sadly. That said, after the fertilizer last week most are noticably bigger. Thanks so much for the advice!
No problem. It might help using some straw mulch. It helps regulate the soil temperature during hot days. Good luck to you and hopefully next year’s harvest is amazing! 😁
I’ve put some lawn clippings on it, grass and clover.