The giant pumpkin growing season is almost upon us here in New Zealand and I’ve been mulling over what I want to do this season and what I want to achieve, setting goals can really help.
This will be my 10th season of growing giants which is a little bit mind boggling when I think about it, I’ve met some awesome people, checked out some great events, seen a lot of pumpkins and been involved in great things, and when I think about it more I’ve lived in 6 different places in those 10 years, not the most conducive thing to help with giant pumpkin growing.
The Tiny Pumpkin Patch
As far as I am aware I’m not moving again anytime soon, so I’m stuck with the tiny pumpkin patch, although I did get a generous offer of some space to grow a pumpkin, after having a think about it I don’t think I could do it justice, I just have too much going on and I’m not sure I could commit to travelling out there as much as I would need to.
And I wasn’t too sure if I was going to grow a giant in the tiny patch again, I initially thought I would just chuck in a whole bunch of miniatures, all of that changed when I went on to Instagram.
I came across an account going by the name of Uncle Surf, a lot of what he has on there is him showing his legally grown marijuana plants, something I’m not really keen on myself, but the thing that did catch my eye was the giant pumpkin he was growing.
It was a pretty decent size, even more so when you consider it was growing in a pot. It was being fed nutrients and was being grown in a hydroponic way. This means you don’t have soil, you have growing medium, and the plant doesn’t need to put out as many roots as it gets all the nutrients it needs.
Now, of course, big pumpkin patches, soil tests, and all that good stuff lead to the biggest pumpkins around, there is no denying that. But what this did was renew my enthusiasm growing in a small patch under not ideal circumstances. I managed to find a NZ written book about hydroponic setups at the local charity store, it helped me understand the principles and I’m probably not going to set up the tiny patch as a hydroponic setup, but it did give me a lot to think about.
Things I am going to do this season
- My patch has been overcome by oxalis which means a lot of growth all over the area, and lots of competition for nutrients. This wasn’t there last year, and I have a feeling the compost I put in last year had these bulbs in it, which is a shame, and I am going to have to dig it out and replace the soil.
- I’m going to be updating more pages on the website and I’ll be creating more video content this year. I’m just waiting on some equipment to turn up.
- I will be attempting to get to more pumpkin events around the country (hopefully some of them new to me) and will be taking photos and video.
- I’ll be promoting grower’s diaries over at BigPumpkins.com, we need to get more NZ growers showing what they are up to. I’m not sure if it is a Kiwi thing, but not many people share what they are up to.
As well that all of that, I’ll be helping organize a bunch of stuff for The Great Pumpkin Carnival which is being held on the 8th of April 2018, working on 2 brand new projects which should be pretty awesome, still working on the other things I have on the go, going to work, spending time with the family, so to sum it up, keeping busy.
What plans do you have the 2018 season? Trying something new? Let me know in the comments below, would love to hear from you.
