Baby giant watermelon with marks on it

Whats been happening – week ending 22-12-2013

Hello there, I got busy last week with some other project I work on and it took almost the whole weekend to get sorted, so no update then but you can have one now 🙂

Crazy time of the year

Growing giant pumpkins through this time of the year sure is crazy, I sometimes wonder what it would be like if our season matched the Northern Hemisphere season and if it would be easier, on the other hand I wonder how they would cope growing through Christmas and New Years (without all the cold weather of course)

I’ve been so tired the last week, been busy doing heaps of stuff for Christmas and I will be going to Tauranga and Rotorua over the break, hopefully the pumpkin plants behave themselves while I am away.  Onto the update:

Miniature Pumpkins

The ones in the pot have a couple of pumpkins on the go, hopefully they manage to grow to maturity, the other ones have heaps of leaves and vines all over the place and when walking through them carefully I managed to step on the cat who seems to like sleeping under the leaves, if all else fails at least I have created some shade for the cat.

Miniature pumpkin growing from the pot
Miniature pumpkin growing from the pot
Another miniature pumpkin forming in the pot.
Another miniature pumpkin forming in the pot.

 

Giant Sunflowers

These are growing well and it is cool to see how they follow where the sun is.  They are getting to the point where I need to stake them to make sure they don’t fall over, also we have to keep an eye on the cows that are grazing next to them as they keep eyeing them up.

Sunflower head forming
Sunflower head forming

Giant Watermelon

I’m happy there is a watermelon on the plant and it appears to be growing but it did get some strange marks on it, hopefully they wont cause it to rot, but if there is more getting ready to grow that will be cool.

Baby giant watermelon with marks on it
Baby giant watermelon with marks on it

Giant Pumpkins

The pumpkin plants are growing well, not putting out too many side vines but pushing ahead with the main vine, I already pulled off a pumpkin that appeared to be growing already, it wasn’t in the spot I wanted it to grow and wasn’t one I had pollinated myself so it had to go.

Main vine growing well
Main vine growing well

I’ve been burying the vines to help anchor them in the winds, this is the first time I have seen the wind catch the leaves and rock them from side to side, if left to their own devices the vine will eventually snap off.  Burying at the leaf axils gives another point for the plant to get nutrients.

Vine axis with female flower
Vine axis with female flower

Watering

Watering has been pretty consistent for each plant and they seem to like it, I am waiting to see how all this rain we are going to get plays out and then continue with the watering, I have been increasing the amount I am putting on the plants as it gets hotter, currently it ranges from 100 – 200 litres per plant every day.  To help measure this I have the Neta Water Litre Meter hooked up to the Watering Wand.

I also spread out more pea straw to help stop the water from evaporating from the soil.

More pea straw put down
More pea straw put down

Pollination

I am thinking pollination on the main plant will occur in the next couple of days, I am still waiting for the other plants to catch up on growth and expect them to be pollinated in the next couple of weeks, I will put up some photos of that in a later post.

Stuff I brought this week

I brought myself a new garden trowel this week, the previous one was this little weird plastic one I got years ago, it was very narrow and I think it’s main purpose was for planting plants or seeds, anyway it wasn’t very good for spreading dirt around onto pumpkin plants so for $13 I got this:

Garden trowel
Garden trowel

That’s it for this post, I hope you have a great Christmas whatever you are up to and your pumpkins are doing well.

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