Pumpkin crop did poorly this year... Advice?

Will Herring · Sep 14, 2013

I only managed to get 4 pumpkins this year out of 16 hills. It was sad, I thought I had a whole bumper crop of them, but when I went to pick them today they had problems like:

1. Some were completely soft all the way around and through.

2. Some were hard on the top, but on the bottom side were soft and had been eaten by some burrowing bug.

3. Some were hard all the way around but the stems snapped off and it looked like the stem was rotting out from the top and bottom.

Where did I go wrong? I think our few weeks of no rain and nasty heat did them poorly, but could I have saved them by watering them? Turning them? Or shading them?

RayP(MI) · Sep 14, 2013

Pumpkin fields here looked pretty sad here too. My advice wait till next year! If you're planting just a few hills, I would suggest digging a hole for each, fill it with animal droppings of your choice, backfill over it, and plant over it. Plenty of water too.

Rollie NE PA · Sep 14, 2013

Cucumber beetles will do a number on pumpkins. Did
you have powdery mildew problems?
I had about 200 hills of pumpkins and my crop was
down from previous years but we were very dry. I cut
mine from the vine while the stem is green even if
the pumpkin has alot of green on it.

DoubleR · Sep 14, 2013

I had good looking plants and the early rains we got really helped with the chemicals I use for weed control. I just didn't get the pumpkins on the plants like I expected to have. I'm getting ready to open my stand where I sell them next weekend. I will start picking this week, I just hope I have enough to keep it supplied until Halloween. I plant about 4 acers, I use treated seed and plant 7-8 different varieties. I have no irrigation, just count on the rains and hope for the best here in Michigan. I always like to have a some left over at Halloween. Then I know I planted enough.

Do you live in an area where they had too much rain? Do you plant seed that is treated for some of the diseases that are harmful to pumpkins? Thats just a couple of things that come to mind.

fixerupper · Sep 14, 2013

(reply to post at 17:02:04 09/14/13)

y pumpkins here in NWIA were the same as yours. We didn't get them in till darned near June because of the wet spring. During the hot dry spell I watered them twice. I picked about half of them but I don't have much faith in the ones I did pick keeping well. The potato bugs, or whatever they are called, are bad this year. Jim

Rollie NE PA · Sep 14, 2013

Double R, What do you use for powdery mildew? I used Rally 40WSP fungicide this year with good results.
It is expensive.

Will Herring · Sep 14, 2013

They were planted in what I thought were decent sized hills and we got some nice rains early on. About the only good crop we got off of them was blossoms early on (the rains were still upon us, then). No powdery mildew or mold issues, though the potato/squash bugs have been out in force it seems like. I never have bought seed, I have always just replanted seeds from previous years (I collect when I carve pumpkins). Maybe I should pick up a pack of treated seeds.

495man · Sep 15, 2013

What do you use for weed control? The 3pt cultivator and hoe are not working out for me time wise....

495man · Sep 15, 2013

Mine didn't do too well either, but they went in late and we had TOO MUCH rain.

DoubleR · Sep 15, 2013

I apply 1pint command, 1pint Duall, and 1 pint of Teflon per a. I spray it after I plant and run over it with a crow foot packer. You need to stir the soil up with a cultivator or drag just a inch or two deep after they come up. I plant 9 foot rows.
My wife likes to hoe so she will normally go through the rows once a year before they vine out. If we don't get any rain to make the above chemicals work I do allot of cultivating and roundup in between the rows.
I don't use my own seed. I order new seed every year from Harris Seed in the fall. Since I have been getting treated seed I don't seem to have the problems with wilt and such. A good healthy plant will die now and then but hasn't been a real problem.

yak651 · Sep 15, 2013

Probably squash bore bug killing your plants, I'm not sure how you kill these, if someone knows please post it up. This year didn't get too many cucumber beatles I only sprayed them once this year with Seven. Here's a couple of pictures from a week ago, ignore the weeds, I do all weed control by hand and once the vines take off can't really get in there to do much so they sometimes get out of hand...

Edit - for some reason I can't get the pictures to load, we try in another post

Kent Hawks · Sep 15, 2013

We have two fields, one with saved seeds and the other one with harris seeds. Both produced very well, even with all the rain we got. Powdery mildew is killing the vines now but that happens this time of year. The field with our saved seeds have bigger pumpkins. Put manure on your patch and spray for cucumber beetels when the plants are young. Cultivate your rows untill the vines start to run and hope for the best. We're in northern NY and have grown pumpkins for 35 yrs or so. Some years are just better than others.

Will Herring · Sep 15, 2013

Well at least rotten pumpkins are good for something:

Pumpkin crop did poorly this year... Advice?

Will Herring

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RayP(MI)

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Rollie NE PA

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DoubleR

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fixerupper

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Rollie NE PA

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Will Herring

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495man

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495man

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DoubleR

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yak651

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Kent Hawks

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Will Herring

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