150 Sq Feet Challenge 2016 Entry #3

Who would have thought trying to grow a giant pumpkin out of season through winter would have been hard?

I mean you only really have everything going against you:

  • Less sunshine
  • Cold temperatures
  • Some dumbass that broke the plant

So the last one on that list probably isn’t something everyone should be worried about, but it is something you should keep an eye out for.

For me that dumbass is myself.

Early growth 150sq foot challenge

What Happened

I have my hoop house made up and it seems to be helping by creating a slightly warmer environment for the plant.
To help keep it warm on very cold nights, I was using a cardboard box. Something I have done in the past and it is a cheap easy way to help keep the area directly around the plant keep warm.

When removing the box in the morning I soon discovered that the plant stem was snapped in half 🙁

While being careful every time I placed and removed the box, it appears one of the flaps of the box must have hit the extremely delicate and fragile plant causing it to break when I was placing the box on the night before.

Giant pumpkin seedling next to can for size comparison

It may not look like it, but the seedling is actually snapped in this photo 🙁  Time to rip it out and sort out other seeds fast.

There’s still time

Luckily there is still time to get something else growing, so I have started off a 1409.5 Miller seed. The other seedlings I had got extremely leggy and I’m not keen on planting those.
Hopefully I’ll have something to plant outside very soon. I’ll keep you posted on how all that goes.

Check out Tim’s Updates

Here’s the link to Tim’s BigPumpkins.com diary where you can see his awesome greenhouse and what he is up to for the challenge.  Scroll to the bottom for the latest updates.

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