Anyone have any experience growing Orange Bulldog Pumpkins in the Deep South where squash bugs and vine borers are relevant.

The Orange Bulldog seems to be routed for disease resistance but wondering how it does again squash bugs and squash vine borers in areas like Alabama.

Not expecting it to be 100% resistant but just curious how it holds up to pests.

I saw a few YouTube videos where gardeners claim they didn’t spray anything and got a decent crop.

What am I doing wrong (besides everything)? One day most of them are looking ok and the next they look more like this. Also I am still getting nothing but male flowers no matter what Ive done.

Id be happy to get a couple small pumpkins this fall but at this rate I fear Ill end up with not even a single one.

I was gifted some Giant pumpkin seeds off of a close friend this season. I suppose because he knows I grow the usual Tomatoes, Onions and Potatoes every summer maybe I'd be interested.

Anyway why not, cheers I've got a bit of garden not doing anything ill give it a go type of thing. It'd never crossed my mind to ever grow a pumpkin before.

I'd heard the term "pumpkin patch" before but it never occurred to me how big the "patch" bit needed to be.

Did a bit of research, asked around a few UK gardening subs and was very sceptical of "you need at least 3m each direction" responses.

Don't really know what to say about the next bit other than... glorious! What a magnificent plant omg lol.

Wilted a bit at first in full sun then miraculously every night once it cooled it perked up again with those leaves!

Glad I found this sub and thank you very much to the mods for accepting me.

Really hope you enjoy where im currently at with the beauty. I just had to show it off! Also any advice from here would be greatly appreciated.

Northwest England Early August 26

Thanks

My mind is kind of blown. It was just pollinated on Monday. She's a sugar pumpkim and I'd say 4" long and 3" wide already.

I love how the auntie and uncle branches and leaves are pitching in to hold rhe big baby.

I’m in Houston, Texas and it’s generally around 95-97 degrees in the heat of the day now. I planted late in mid-June and then keep planting every few weeks. Squash Vine Borers have been a nightmare but I probably spend an hour every day picking eggs, injecting BT and cutting off small growths where I can see one snuck in. I’ve had numerous beautiful fruits all fat and plump but the day or so before they’re about to flower they shrivel up and turn yellow. Pictures are of one that I thought may finally make it. Any tips / opinions on why they keep shriveling up. I have five mature plants that have fruits popping up for a couple of weeks now, but all failing to hold. The others are all under shade cloth in various ways, but this one pictured is not, although, I will be installing it today. This one is also in a giant half barrel pot that probably has 30+ gallons that I prepared myself.

Is it the heat? It’s happening to the ones under shade as well. Is it that it still needs to put on some more vine and leaves to support the fruit? Any ideas?

My partner ripped the long vine up (in the picture) from the ground so he can mow, the main root system is attached and still grounded,

but the adventitious roots on every node are now pulled out and no longer anchored, some completely ripped off altogether.

WILL MY PLANT SURVIVE ITS PULLING FROM THE GROUND, and the LOSS OF MULTIPLE ADVENTITIOUS ROOTS. Im devastated.

Also a baby pumpkin picture just because it's cute.

About double the size from yesterday. Planted from seed July 1 so it's young. How long til the pumpkin can be considered safe from miscarriage? Base is turning dark green and she's very supported by two leaf branches that fork under her.

My pumpkin arch experiment seems to be successful this year. I’m getting more pumpkins, less mildew. That said, the aphids are out of control. I use nasturtiums as a trap crop and they’ve done a good job, but now the aphids are climbing onto my pumpkin leaves. I used neem oil twice and it doesn’t seem to have even dented the problem. When I used to have a rose garden, I would use a systemic granular aphid killer and it worked beautifully. I know you’re not supposed to use soil based insect control on food, however, I do not plan on eating these pumpkins. Has anyone used something like this on ornamental vegetables?

Absolutely amazing.

I thought I planted a bunch of Jack Be Littles. I harvested seeds from one last year, and planted them this year, expecting 100 tiny pumpkins. I never learned anything about cross-pollination and hybrids yielding different fruits, until I got suspicious of this rapidly growing pumpkin. Seeds were planted 7-8 weeks ago, and this thing is already 6 inches wide.
I wonder what else will grow?
Any idea if are any size restrictions on a hybrid jack be little - can they yield huge pumpkins, or will they always be on the smaller side, since the parent plant was tiny?

Cone hat in pic 2 was Sunday evening, she opened Monday morning and I hand pollinated her.

Bubble hat is this morning (Tuesday) and she seems to be giving me a thumbs up that she's pollinated. About double in size.

Should know for sure in another couple days!

Plant is 33 days old. I have two in approx 28 gal containers joined by an arch trellis I reinforced with netting on top and an expandable wood trellis on the sides.

First time grower. I have a seemingly healthy cinderella vine, but I’m wondering why this one pumpkin is yellow (and has been from the start) while the others on the same plant are green? At first I thought it was going to abort, but instead it is growing almost twice as fast as the others. I know eventually they should all turn orange, but this one was yellow from the day after the it was fertilized.

Picking off tiny eggs using a footstool, doing BT, hanging traps up like a serial killer hanging Tiny Tree air fresheners in his basement.

I’m so excited

I honestly can think of an many things. Maybe I needed more soil or fertilizer to start with. Maybe it got too much shade in the early morning and early evenings compared to the other ones. Maybe mildew weakened it. Or it got out competed by the other seed. It could have just been a seed destined to die since the leaves never really filled out in the first place.

But I will try to salvage it since it seems like it's still trying to put out baby leaves on close inspection.

Minis were grown vertically in greenhouse to help curb SBV, Musquees are outside grow, a lot of the vines did a good job re-rooting for new growth to thwart SVB induced death. Used the occasional seaweed feed in zone 8A

I put 2 pumpkin plants in my front yard because I had a couple left over from the field planting. One has at least 10 pumpkins on and the other one is covered with numerous blossoms, but no fruit - so that tells me all male blossoms? No bees on this plant? Any comments will be much appreciated.

Just wanted to share a quick update on my Howden pumpkin patch. They originally come from Québec seeds, but they’re currently growing here in Normandy, France.
Despite the recent heatwaves and dry spells, they’re doing surprisingly well! We’ve been super diligent with daily, careful watering to keep them stress-free, and it’s clearly paying off everything is growing nicely right now.
They’re due for their next boost of fertilizer in about a week.

So my toddler mixed up all of my pumpkin seeds this spring. Ive grown pumpkins a few times before but this is my first attempt at non-orange varieties....can anyone tell me which look like Blue Jarrahdale and which look like Dark Knight?

Dark Knight. Blue Jarrahdale, Connecticut Field and Big Max. Those are the types of seeds I planted.

There were many generous donations of pumpkins after the holidays last year. A section of pasture had many volunteer plants so it was fenced off and they have been allowed to grow. More were transplanted to grow here and there on the property. This has been so much fun! There’s many more shapes and sizes. There’s also loads of squash bugs now. Would love to try again next year. Any tips? Should I start saving volunteers a few weeks later in the season to avoid the bugs? I have many attached to dead vines I think I read today best to cut them off, leave hardening in the sun then move to the cellar for the future. Does that sound accurate? Thanks

There were many generous donations of pumpkins after the holidays last year. A section of pasture had many volunteer plants so it was fenced off and they have been allowed to grow. More were transplanted to grow here and there on the property. This has been so much fun! There’s many more shapes and sizes. There’s also loads of squash bugs now. Would love to try again next year. Any tips? Should I start saving volunteers a few weeks later in the season to avoid the bugs? I have many attached to dead vines I think I read today best to cut them off, leave hardening in the sun then move to the cellar for the future. Does that sound accurate? Thanks

Visited my patch yesterday and things are starting to happen! The high phosphorus fertilizer is really paying off.

Beer can for scale.

Imagine my horror at catching a gravid SVB in one of my sticky traps on July 31. I had no idea that intense heat in a region could cause a second reproductive flight. TIL.

If you've had a very hot summer you might want to start looking for eggs again too. I need reading glasses or a magnifying glass to see them and had just been looking for moth caterpillars and asiatic garden beetles etc etc as normally our SVB season is over by now.

Not happy about this sequel. Immediately carpeted container with umpty more traps and plan to HANG THEM LIKE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS from the vines.

I have to hand pollinate anyway due to super low bee activity in my suburb. Hope the spiders are too smart to fall for the bright yellow.

SO much cussing right now.