Tiny Patch 2.0 Update 03 Dec 2021

Nearing the end of November start of December here in New Zealand means giant pumpkin growers will have their plant in the ground. Vine growth will be occurring as the plant stretches out and flowers will be appearing for a lot of growers. But if they haven’t yet, don’t worry.

It’s been a month since the plant was transplanted, and it seems to be doing fine for such a small prepared area.

Read on to see how everything has been going, or check out the video at the end of the post.

What I’ve Been Doing

  • Consistent watering.
  • Applying fertiliser to the plant.
  • Waiting. Just waiting for the plant to start growing out more.
  • Removing weeds.
Watering – I’ve been doing by hand, it currently works OK for where I am growing. I might need to look into how I do it later on in the season. I’ve been doing this first thing in the morning, which is working well for me and the plant.
Fertilising – its pretty simple, I’m using liquid Yates Thrive and a powdered seaweed product and applying it once per week.
Removing weeds – is an early morning job for me, and is mainly centered around the prepared area of the Tiny Patch 2.0

What I’ll Be Up To Soon

  • Managing the vines of the plant
  • More watering
  • More fertiliser

Vine Management – I need to make sure they go where I want them to. I’ll be using some bamboo stakes to achieve this. I’ll also attempt to “bury” the vines where they are on the grass of the lawn. I think I have a plan worked out for that. I hope the plant likes it.

More Watering – As the plant grows, I will be applying more water. I’m currently doing this by hand. In the future I may have to set up misters to help cool the plant down. I’ll have to see how that will work very soon.

More Fertiliser – I’m going to go from a once a week application to twice a week. Keeping the same amount applied as any more would be a waste. I’ll make sure to change the product to one with a bit more phosphorus to help during the flowering stage.

Ants are Everywhere

Like I say in the video below, everything in the backyard seems to be an ant nest. Soon as you touch the ground, or kneel down to weed you are covered in them. It’s quite crazy. They are using the main vine as a little highway to get from place to place. They don’t seem to be causing any harm to the plant.
Are they OK? Or should I be dealing to them? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

Double Main Vine

Double trouble? Or double the pumpkin power?
Shout out to Shane who spotted the double vine situation on a short video I posted to the Facebook page the other week.
I let it grow a bit to show just how it looked. The question is would you cut one off? So the plant isn’t growing 2 at once, or leave it and just manage it?
I haven’t had this happen before on any of the plants I’ve grown before.
I’m going to let them both grow, see how it plays out and manage them as best as I can this season.
That’s about it for now. I am bummed I don’t know exactly what this seed is I am growing. But for the space I am growing in, the limitations I have, I had to go with the best looking seedling at the time. This was it. The official name I had for the seed was Random Seed #2
I haven’t got anything for protecting the tip of the main vine from the sun. I am thinking about using a plastic chair I have with a bag of sand on top to weight it down.
I’ll have to check just how well that works for my location.
Coming up in a future blog post I’ll share my plan for burying vines, and I’ll talk about some other things I may need to purchase.
If you’re reading this, how’s your season going? Happy with your plants progress? Let me know in the comments below, or leave any questions you may have,

 

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