What’s been happening in the tiny pumpkin patch?
The plant is still growing, which is great to see. In fact this might be one of the healthiest plants I have grown in the tiny pumpkin patch.
Sure leaves are dying, but they are the original first lot of growth. This second set is looking good. I’m more impressed there is no powdery mildew on everything.
I did one preventative spray which I feel was timed right. On the other side of the house and out the front the miniatures got hit with it.
Busy with Organising a Pumpkin Event
It’s that time of the year when I am sure I will get things organised well ahead of time, but in reality I start chasing my tail.
Lots of things to do for the Carnival coming up. We are in a new location this year which has added extra things to do an think about. I’m not sure if we will have a large turn out or not this year.
But… as long as we do everything we have planned, it will be a fun day for anyone that turns up.
More Thoughts
This time of the year is also when I think the most about the whole giant pumpkin growing scene here in NZ. This ties into organising a giant pumpkin event.
If you have joined the Southern Hemisphere Giant Pumpkin Growers Group on Facebook you may have seen my rather wordy post I did about how I myself see the GPC and NZ giant pumpkin growing scene.
I think the GPC is a great organisation. I just don’t think they are the best fit for us down under.
NZ and I’ll bundle Australia in with this statement as well, are both unique growing environments with it’s own challenges and things that go along with them. From getting seed, to the growing season and more.
The question I contemplate a lot is how do you get more people growing giant pumpkins? And the answer is I don’t think there is a clear cut answer.
I feel the amount of growers here in NZ is reasonably static, it stays very similar year after year.
As more people try it for the first time, other people drop out of growing them. I’ve seen this happen from small growers to people who were growing some of the biggest pumpkins around.
To sum all of this up, let me say I think we have our own giant pumpkin growing environment and while we can take ideas, knowledge and inspiration from other parts of the world, I don’t think we should compare ourselves too often.
Now What?
Well I am about to write out a whole bunch of social media posts to schedule for the pumpkin event. Might even create some video stuff.
If you’d like to discuss the state of the giant pumpkin growing season here in the Southern Hemisphere, leave a comment, flick me an email or lets catch up via skype or in person.
Growing giant pumpkins is a passion that I love sharing. 🎃 If you’ve found my content helpful or entertaining, why not say thanks with a coffee? ☕
It’ll fuel my next giant pumpkin adventure!
Sam, I give away pumpkin seeds, both giant and regular sized every year at a local fair in the USA. The seeds are usually from pumpkins I grow and save. I also provide instructions along with the seeds. Big Max pumpkin seeds are available in your part of the world and can grow fruit as large as 45 kilos–plus the flesh is good for pumpkin pies, etc. Pumpkin growing instructions that can fit back and front on a sheet of paper can be found here:http://www.quantumpetshop.com/tutorials/pumpkin-detailed.asp
Pumpkins can be grown in a space as small as 4.5 x 4.5 meters.
Hi Steve, thanks for the comment.
All good points, I think a lot of it comes down to culture. We don’t really have any history with pumpkins like the US does, we hardly celebrate Halloween, no matter how hard giant retailers try and make us.
We have Christmas and New Years in the middle of the growing season, and for a lot of people this is their holiday time where they go to the beach etc.
And, the whole population total for our country is 4.8 million people. So I think we do quite well with the amount of pumpkin events we do have.
We’ll see how it all grows moving forward.
We live in Albuquerque, New Mexico and some of our pumpkins are ripe now in August. Do we pick them now as they are getting soft? If so how do I keep them from rotting before Oct?
If they are ripe I would pick them now. You want to store them in a cool dark space. They can at anytime rot, so make sure you put them on something that doesn’t matter if they get messy. Some pumpkins store better than others, so you’ll just have to see how it goes.