This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

On 25/1/08 12:55, in article
,
" wrote:

This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

I've never done it but I do wish you every bit of luck! I've *read* that
regular watering and liberal helpings of liquid manure e.g. Horse muck mixed
up in a bucket of water, helps. Preparing the ground well must be
important, too, I should think.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 25 Jan, 12:55, "
wrote:
This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, *and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. *Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

Well you have the best seed there for a giant! I wouldn't fertilise
liberaly though - once the pumpkins are mature it is a good idea to
stop or they'll split and crack. People give them potash once they are
mature, so that the pumpkin start putting weight on. We've grown Jack
o Lanterns with the kids, but never a Giant. We prefere small ones now
as they are tastier. I use lots of comfrey leaves to mulch and liquid
feed, keep weed at bay with mulching and keep the ground moist. The
trick there would be to prepare the ground thoroughly, like start now,
this week end! They need lots of om and if you prepare a trench, and
place your runners on it, they will soon make roots along that trench.
I beleive this is how you make your monsters. Last year I trained our
pumpkins runner into a circle so that they took less space. But that's
not for you I think.

I'm not sure how much you know about growing pumpkins - but for giant,
soil preparation is vital since you need to feed the monsters!! Let us
know what you know so far and see if others can give you their own
individual tips. Good luck!

Here's one I prepared earlier. Size doesn't matter ;o)

http://cjoint.com/?bzpDg8X1DH

This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

My 7 year old grandson grows pumpkins and other veg for the local flower
and veg show, he usually wins so I will ask him what he does that is
special, that is if he will tell me :-) It is good to see the youngsters
keen to grow isn't it :-)

kate

dawn.wrightson wrote
This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

Some of the successful chaps at the Boot Inn Pumpkin Club, Berwick St.James,
plant their very special seed on Christmas day! I believe some of them got
their original seed from the USA but they are very cagey, they then use
their own saved seed from right near the stalk end of the biggest fruit.....

So, they should be planted now with warmth and grown on with regular
repotting until you can plant them out about the first week in June. Plant a
few and discard any that look weak, they say the biggest seed gives the
biggest plant and therefore biggest fruit.

They will need plenty of water and feed, never let them dry out or have any
other check to their constant growth.

Before you plant out prepare the ground by digging in lots of compost over
the whole area, but most important, dig a large hole at least a spit and a
half deep and round where the plant will be planted and fill it with well
rotted compost into which you can mix just a little soil.
If you have a polytunnel to grow them in so much the better.
Once out in the ground build a little dam (saucer) around the plant with the
removed soil so you can water right where the roots are, push a long stick
into this dam so you will still know where to water once the plant has taken
over the whole garden. A gallon of water a day to start, double later as a
minimum, don't let the leaves wilt.
Later, as the plant extends, cover over the leaf nodes with soil/compost and
provided there is moisture they will root there as well, from then on the
whole area will need to be kept moist. Lets hope there are no hosepipe
bans.

When a good healthy pumpkin starts to grow ensure the growth of the fruit
does not strain or rip the stalk from it, you may have to gently move it. Do
not let any other fruit start to form on that plant, they probably won't
anyway. Place something strong and smooth under the fruit so it can
grow/slide easily. Watch out for mice.
Later in the season if we start to get cool nights and the fruit are still
growing cover the fruit in the evening/night with something to keep it warm.
I kid you not. :-)

Feeding, that's a whole subject in itself. Use a high nitrogen to start with
once it's planted out then a balanced feed, I also use Seaweed Extract
rather a lot too.

Good luck, wonderful things for children (of all ages) to grow as big
pumpkins put on weight so quickly once they start that you can actually see
it day on day.

To move a large pumpkin roll it gently onto one side and then the other
whilst someone pushes a strong sheet under it then the required number of
strong people grip the sheet and lift.

And a few years ago the junior prize (under 16) at the above mentioned club
was won with a fruit of over 440lbs.

Most importantly, have fun.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden

Bob Hobden wrote:
dawn.wrightson wrote
This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate
to a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any
tips or hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very
appreciated! Cos we want to win! Thanks.

Some of the successful chaps at the Boot Inn Pumpkin Club, Berwick
St.James, plant their very special seed on Christmas day! I believe
some of them got their original seed from the USA but they are very
cagey, they then use their own saved seed from right near the stalk
end of the biggest fruit.....
So, they should be planted now with warmth and grown on with regular
repotting until you can plant them out about the first week in June.
Plant a few and discard any that look weak, they say the biggest seed
gives the biggest plant and therefore biggest fruit.

They will need plenty of water and feed, never let them dry out or
have any other check to their constant growth.

Before you plant out prepare the ground by digging in lots of compost
over the whole area, but most important, dig a large hole at least a
spit and a half deep and round where the plant will be planted and
fill it with well rotted compost into which you can mix just a little
soil. If you have a polytunnel to grow them in so much the better.
Once out in the ground build a little dam (saucer) around the plant
with the removed soil so you can water right where the roots are,
push a long stick into this dam so you will still know where to water
once the plant has taken over the whole garden. A gallon of water a
day to start, double later as a minimum, don't let the leaves wilt.
Later, as the plant extends, cover over the leaf nodes with
soil/compost and provided there is moisture they will root there as
well, from then on the whole area will need to be kept moist. Lets
hope there are no hosepipe bans.

When a good healthy pumpkin starts to grow ensure the growth of the
fruit does not strain or rip the stalk from it, you may have to
gently move it. Do not let any other fruit start to form on that
plant, they probably won't anyway. Place something strong and smooth
under the fruit so it can grow/slide easily. Watch out for mice.
Later in the season if we start to get cool nights and the fruit are
still growing cover the fruit in the evening/night with something to
keep it warm. I kid you not. :-)

Feeding, that's a whole subject in itself. Use a high nitrogen to
start with once it's planted out then a balanced feed, I also use
Seaweed Extract rather a lot too.

Has anyone ever tried growing under sealed polythene and increasing the
carbon dioxide concentration in the air surrounding the plant? There is no
point in all the sophisticated stuff if the carbon dioxide level is
insufficient. Perhaps it is somewhat simplistic to say so, but plant weight
is basically added through photosynthesis, water, and carbon dioxide. It
seems to me that the first two are often controlled carefully, but nobody
appears to experiment by increasing CO2. I assume there would be an effect,
and maybe there is a critical concentration.

Has anyone ever looked into this over here? Seems that it has been
investigated on the other side of the pond:
http://gvgo.ca/mb/index.php?topic=433.msg1954#msg1954

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

In article ,
"Jeff Layman" writes:
|
| Has anyone ever tried growing under sealed polythene and increasing the
| carbon dioxide concentration in the air surrounding the plant? There is no
| point in all the sophisticated stuff if the carbon dioxide level is
| insufficient. Perhaps it is somewhat simplistic to say so, but plant weight
| is basically added through photosynthesis, water, and carbon dioxide. It
| seems to me that the first two are often controlled carefully, but nobody
| appears to experiment by increasing CO2. I assume there would be an effect,
| and maybe there is a critical concentration.
|
| Has anyone ever looked into this over here? Seems that it has been
| investigated on the other side of the pond:
| http://gvgo.ca/mb/index.php?topic=433.msg1954#msg1954

It has been looked into scientifically, because it is relevant to
global warming. The executive summary is that most plants do grow
faster with slightly higher levels of carbon dioxide, but more than
a very small increase is toxic to them. They have, after all,
adapted over many millions of years to an environment low in carbon
dioxide.

The only thing that surprised anyone was how small an increase was
needed to cause toxicity. After all, almost all foods are toxic to
almost all organisims in very high concentrations.

Note that this does not apply to some of the unicellular plants,
just as with nitrates etc. in water courses.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
"Jeff Layman" writes:

Has anyone ever tried growing under sealed polythene and increasing
the carbon dioxide concentration in the air surrounding the plant?
There is no point in all the sophisticated stuff if the carbon
dioxide level is insufficient. Perhaps it is somewhat simplistic
to say so, but plant weight is basically added through
photosynthesis, water, and carbon dioxide. It seems to me that the
first two are often controlled carefully, but nobody appears to
experiment by increasing CO2. I assume there would be an effect,
and maybe there is a critical concentration.

Has anyone ever looked into this over here? Seems that it has been
investigated on the other side of the pond:
http://gvgo.ca/mb/index.php?topic=433.msg1954#msg1954

It has been looked into scientifically, because it is relevant to
global warming. The executive summary is that most plants do grow
faster with slightly higher levels of carbon dioxide, but more than
a very small increase is toxic to them. They have, after all,
adapted over many millions of years to an environment low in carbon
dioxide.

The only thing that surprised anyone was how small an increase was
needed to cause toxicity. After all, almost all foods are toxic to
almost all organisims in very high concentrations.

Note that this does not apply to some of the unicellular plants,
just as with nitrates etc. in water courses.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks for the info.

There is no doubt that plants which have evolved environmental adaptations
to low concentrations of a particular molecule, gas, ion, or whatever often
suffer when exposed to high concentrations (such as many Western Australian
Proteaceae and soil phosphate levels). I wonder what makes CO2 toxic?
Perhaps it simply lowers pH in the cell, or maybe makes some metallic ions
less available as carbonate increases.

Something for the gene manipulators to get their thinking caps into if CO2
really is going to increase excessively. Will the heat or famine get us
first?...

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

wrote:
This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

What a lovely boy,Dawn. Sorry to read of your misfortune.If you are
thinking of the weird and wonderful you might like to consider the
phases of the moon:

http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/.

just for fun!
On a more practical and competitive note,an old dodge I learned about
many years ago is to pass two or three threads of wool through the stem
of the pumpkin near the fruit and let the ends dangle into a nitrogenous
solution.The theory goes that as the solution is drawn up the roots take
up more water to dilute it.Anyway,it's supposed to give you a massive
pumpkin but an inedible one.
Whatever you decide to do best wishes for a win.
Sam.

On 26 Jan, 21:02, sam wrote:
http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/.
just for fun!

Serious fun I hope you mean! I beleive in this very much. I've seen
many experiment and I was really amased by the difference of sowing by
the moon phases. I have used it for a few years, not regularly, as I
prefer to be in my bed at 2am than being on my plot sowing carrots ...
Don't dis it, it works though.

Now, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned beer, that is feeding real ale
to pumpkins. That works too apparently. And it's fun, hey Sam ;o)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/3227455.stm

....
This year on my allotment i want to grow a "Giant Atlantic Pumpkin"
with my 8yr old son, and he would like to enter it into a local
competition, and any money he gets from winning he wants to donate to
a charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, as i am going blind. Any tips or
hints on how to grow the biggest from seed would be very appreciated!
Cos we want to win! Thanks.

My 7 year old grandson grows pumpkins and other veg for the local flower
and veg show, he usually wins so I will ask him what he does that is
special, that is if he will tell me :-) It is good to see the youngsters
keen to grow isn't it :-)

kate

I asked grandson and he said that he just planted the seed and watered it a
lot, sounds easy :-)

kate