Top Tip for First Time Giant Pumpkin Growers

On the weekend I sold a lot of giant and miniature pumpkin plants. It’s a thing we do for The Great Pumpkin Carnival.

Partly to promote the event which is happening on March the 28th 2021 if you were wondering.

And partly to get people growing so they have a pumpkin they can bring to our event.

How Many Will Actually Grow?

This is always the unknown.

We never know how many people will grow a pumpkin through the season to get it to our event.

But the odds must be better than if we didn’t sell any seedlings.

The Tip that Helps out New Growers the Most Is

How the vine grows

This tip works if you are growing from a seed sown directly into the ground, or are growing/have a seedling that you will transplant into the ground.

Knowing how the plant grows can save you a lot of headaches later on.

This also works no matter the size of the area you are growing in, something that comes up a lot when talking to people about pumpkin plants.

Giant Pumpkin Plants Grow In a Certain Direction

Within a seed there are already 2 leaf like parts, you’ll see these when the plant emerges from the soil/growing media. These are called the the cotyledon leaves. Or cots or cotys for short. You may also see people call them the seed leaves.

They are there to help the plant to get growing. They don’t really grow much bigger and you’ll see them die off at some point. That’s OK.

The next leaf is what we like to call the first true leaf of the plant. The vine will grow opposite this.

The Vine Will Grow in the Opposite Direction of the First True Leaf

Your seedling might be very early into it’s growth, or you might have a larger seedling and you will need to work out just what is going on.

But this allows you to either place it in the direction you want it to grow. Or helps you train in the vine if you’ve just chucked seeds into the ground.

I hope you find this information useful.