this is my only Cinderella so far, i have two females about dime size that may bloom soon...have a great day all..

Thanks slim! I very well may have a few out there! Your Cinderella is gorgeous. I have a couple volunteer plants in my garden and today my almost two year old twins insisted we pick them! Here they are!

Hey Caroline, I have twins too! 2 sets even, 5 year old boys and 4 year old girls - isn't it the best?? We do need to grow lots of pumpkins though to keep them all happy, haha. Btw i can't believe you're harvesting already! I'm just setting fruit. oh well.

And Gardengal I googled winter luxury and decided I had to grow some too. Just sowed but should get them in time for thanksgiving pie. Thanks for mentioning them

Hey Guys,

I thought this thread was so much fun that I started a Facebook page called Pumpkin People - would you be interested in doing this over there?

Pretty much the same kind of thing, a place to post brag photos, ask questions, exchange tips, whatever you want! And not just for pumpkin growing, of course, squash & gourds too (Pumpkin People is just the name I came up with).

Hope to see you there!! :)

This post was edited by StephanieHS on Mon, Jul 28, 14 at 9:06

First of all, I just can't fathom four under two, and I know there's a fifth one! Your heart must be so full! I'll bet your house is wild and wonderful. And secondly, I am so there on facebook! Thanks for starting another outlet where I can be a nerd! Seriously my friends have started asking why I'm sharing so many pumpkin pictures, so I need to take it down a notch ;) Those garden volunteers were established really early so that's why they are ready! ::Runs over to Facebook::

Sorry, another duplicate. Not sure how that's happening.

This post was edited by LCaroline12 on Mon, Jul 28, 14 at 15:43

Hey guys, I looked around my patch and found some more! Here's an orange cushaw...

I have several of these... can't remember the name, but in the maxima family.

How does the cushaw taste? I have some seeds and would have loved to plant them but I have just one plot. Hopefully next year, I will have two and one dedicated just to the cucurbits family :). Here is a pic of my winter luxury. It looks like it weighs only 3 pounds but I swear it is starting to orange up. I can't wait till it gets that silver webbing.

Beautiful pumpkin gardengal! My understanding is that Cushaw is one of the best varieties for eating. I've made cushaw squash pie and it's really good, just more of a whitish-light yellow color.

Well, unsure of the variety because my kids threw their pumpkin into the compost bin and I hate the cold so much that I didn't check the bin, it was about November :-( Usually if I have to go outside, it's quick. lol
So, sacrificing the compost (made another bin) to have pumpkin vines growing out of them. I took this picture of one of the flowers with a bee in it. There are 2 plants with a pumpkin starting to grow, about the size of a small orange now.

hi there all, hey steph, can you post a link to the face book that you created??? it seems that there are several of that name, two are closed groups...then we can all be on the same page...and carol12, i will be first in line for the cushaw seeds...and your patty pans look great, i bake them in the oven with stove top stuffing, or chilie...MMMMM...

slim

Absolutely! Sorry All, didn't realize there were other pages with that name.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pumpkin People

I figured ours was the page with the least amount of likes since we're new. The other Pumpkin People page seems to focus on "all things pumpkin" and I saw very little about actually growing pumpkins. I invited my pumpkin enthusiast friend to join and she did!

Now I definitely want to grow Cushaw. The addiction grows lol. My cushaw seed packet show a white and green fruit. I wonder if they taste different from each other? A little update on my 1 pumpkin, it is turning orange and starting to get the silver webbing on the bottom. Geez, I think the whole thing took a little over 2 weeks to grow from the pollination :). It has a second female flower but it is too soon to see if it "took" yet.

Hi StephanieHS! Just saw your post. I will tell you how they taste. I am curious to see what your size turns out to be. My first one stopped growing around 2-3 pounds. We had some crazy weather so not sure if that made it stop growing. Usually, it says they get up to 6 pounds. It is awfully cute though :).

gardengal, how about an updated picture?? :)

I'd love that too, Gardengal. I'm so excited about growing Winter Luxury for Thanksgiving pie!! Would love to see your mature one. Have you cooked it yet? Want to here about that def

I read this interesting article where they took 6 or 7 varieties of pie pumpkins and canned Libby's and baked pies using same recipe. Then did a taste test. The one made from winter luxury was definite winner, canned pumpkin came in 2nd. Dead last, unanimous decision was the baby Pam. It's called THE pie pumpkin but somebody compared its flavor to boiled potato (ouch).

Anyhow, long story long, so glad you mentioned your Wnter Luxury on here!!!

Also, check out the facebook mentioned above!

Hi LCaroline12 and StephanieHS,
I have some sad news about the pumpkin but some good news too. Ok so I had some garden stuff stolen (garden at community garden) on Tuesday so I clipped my pumpkin since it was hanging out in the open and I felt they would steal it. The reason I did it was because last year, I grew the sugar pumpkin and snipped them and brought them home when they started to orange up and they actually continued to orange up and were fully-formed. Well, with the winter luxury, you can't do this lol. Lesson learned. I would rather have that happen under my care than to have someone steal it. It started shriveling at home. When I cut it open to eat it like a zucchini, it wasn't fully formed at all. But to the good news: I already have a new baby formed on the trellis that is bigger than a golf ball and there are more flowers formed. I am going to hide this one so people won't know what is growing there. I am including a photo. Sorry about the quality! It was close to dark. I liked the FB page and see some beautiful babies :). I also have a lot of spaghetti squash. Anyone wants a great starter squash, I'd say this is the one to grow. They are monsters lol. Looks like I might have a sugar baby watermelon too :). I will tell you how it taste, Stephanie! I agree, ouch lol! I think it will be about a month to 6 weeks to for the latest pumpkin to be done. I can't wait! I just felt like the sugar pumpkins weren't quite sweet enough and I have a sweet tooth and so I googled the best tasting pumpkin and up popped the winter luxury. Some people state that the blue hubbard is the best so I grew the baby blue hubbard so I can compare. OK I am rambling about the cucurbits again lol!

Oh no, that's upsetting that someone stole from your community garden :( Let's hope that they needed it badly and didn't just steal it for fun. Was it vegetables? Nooooooo, I was looking forward to seeing your pumpkin, but oh well, that new baby will grow quickly!

You know what's cool? I hardly ever see bees when I visit my pumpkin patch, but I always visit in the evening after work. Husband was picking sweet corn the other morning and he said there were tons of bees swarming out there and he could hear a loud humming! He said there must have been 5 bees in one flower! Now I'm dying to go visit during morning! I'm on vacation though so I won't see them until Monday :( Is it strange to say I miss them???

Caroline,
Every morning I go out into my garden. I have zucchini, acorn squash, and pumpkin plants growing... I see tons of bees!! I see regular honey bees, and also these interesting all-black bees with yellow pollen packed on their legs. They look like mini-bumble-bees. They are busy bees!

Hey Gardengal,

I can't believe somebody stole from your garden! Oh my, its depressing when you care for your veggies all season only to have them taken by insects or raccoons or whatever, but by a person! That must be infuriating.

Yes, it seems Winter Luxury is the way to go for pie - I can't wait to bake with one, but be sure to post your taste test between it and the blue hubbard. I have read that Winter Luxury's only flaw is that it does not store, looks like this is true, ah well, gardening is nothing if not a learning process! I Im so glad to see you have another coming along nicely. I'll be right behind you :)

Not strange at all, LCaroline, or else I'm just as strange as you. hahaha.

My garden was kind of barren of bees and I got in the habit of hand pollinating. I went out very early yesterday and just started pollinating a new little female without looking and then I hear this angry buzzing and realize there are bees everywhere and I'm smooshing one with with my male flower. Had to book it for the house, lol, that bee was mad! Anyhow, I have this affection for the bees out there and I'm allergic!! Perhaps we gardeners are just crazy ;)

Ive got out over 15 different types of pumpkins and winter squash, all these are planted on over an acre. Had trouble early no rain then last week some under 7" of water. Cucumber bettles is a problem too, but theyre going good. Have some pics later.

LCaroline12, I was really bummed! I think I have a plan to nip it in the bud for next year but I do worry about this year's garden. Yeah I was thrilled to see that 2nd baby :). I am going to hide it so it isn't out in the open like the other one. I love the bees too. Their little buzzing makes me happy. I don't think it is weird to miss them :). The upside is how much they grow when you don't get to see them every day.

StephanieHS, It did get me down and I was mad. I have decided to grow some odd squashes next year so they don't recognize them. This year I am going to try and hide them under the big leaves.
I can't wait to see which is better. You are so right! It is a learning process every year lol. There is this guy on youtube and he gardens that way, trying things out and if it fails, oh well but if it works, he has a new trick he has learned. It definitely is more sensitive so I am going to be busy as soon as it is done. The hubbard isn't as nice looking as the winter but I like the ugly squashes too ;-P. I want to hear your opinion on taste and see if yours gets any bigger. This is a fun experiment.

I love the pics people are posting on the FB page! I like the white pumpkin, I think it was a peanut. Really cool looking.

Howdy folks,

I live in NE Oklahoma. Normally we have really hot, dry summers. This year has been wonderful, with rains almost every other week and much cooler temps.
Because of our climate and the presence of a great many squash vine borers and squash bugs I mostly grow squash from the c. moschata family (think butternut and Tahitian Melon). But I don't grow the normal c. moschatas. I mainly grow two heirlooms. One I was given when I was studying in Northern Indiana, back in 1984. It's called Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin. WBPP is variable in shape, often throwing butternut shaped fruit and sometimes throwing round, pumpkin shaped fruit. I lost my plantings of WBPP a couple of years running because of tremendous drought, heat and pests, along with some upheavals in my own life. But I did get some planted this year, and it's looking good.
The other squash/pumpkin I grow is an heirloom from North Carolina, called Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin.is a oblong or pear shaped squash weighing between 8 and 30 lb. I received my start from Rodger Winn (http://www.rodgersheirlooms.com/). Rodger's website doesn't show it, but he grows a good many heirlooms from the Southeast. The Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin was originally grown on the edge of corn fields, for weed suppression, back before mechanization. It's obvious, when grown today, that it did its job very well! Here's a picture of my first planting of this squash, back in 2009:

Here's a picture of some of the harvest:

I planted five or six seeds and harvested 400 lbs!

This year I just planted three Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin plants and about seven or eight of the Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin.

Below is a link with more info on the Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. It's not the only great variety out there. But it's the one I've primarily settled on for my conditions.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Here is a link that might be useful: Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin link

Hi! I'm new here and new to pumpkins. I saved seeds from a Cinderella pumpkin that I got at a farmers market last year and planted them in my yard this spring. I have a HUGE plant with a bunch of pumpkins growing on it. My question is: what kind of pumpkin is this? Like I said it's from a Cinderella pumpkin but it looks nothing like the pumpkin we had last year. I have two plants from two seeds from the same pumpkin. One vine has what looks like Cinderella pumpkins in it and the other vine has these. Hmmmmm
Any advice? Also, when do they turn orange?

This post was edited by ljaskulski on Mon, Aug 4, 14 at 0:16

That is some kind of cross. Cinderella Pumpkin (a.k.a. Rouge Vif D' Etampes) is from the c. maxima species and will readily cross with other varieties such as Hubbard, Delicious, Big Max or banana squash). There are many specialty squash/pumpkins from this species and often, they are grown in close proximity to one another. If they are not at least 1/2 mile apart, they will cross.

The good news is, that it is more likely than not, that your cross will be good eating. But if you were to save seed from it, and replant next year, you'd be amazed at all the variations in fruit size, shape and color, which would probably crop up.

If you would like to save seed from your pure plant, here's a link on how to do hand pollinations.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollination of squash instruction download

Here's an updated picture of the peanut pumpkin!

Here's an updated picture of the peanut pumpkin!

{{!gwi}}

macmex, those pumpkins are gorgeous! And I can almost taste them. Do you freeze or can any of your pumpkin?

macmex and ljask, I think you two just helped me solve a mystery. I also planted plenty of Cinderella pumpkins and I don't have any, but I do have several similar to what ljask posted. So my Cinderella pumpkins must have gotten pollenated by another maxima variety. I think it's funny how they cross and make really weird offspring!

Whatever this is, I have tons of them! I wonder if they'll change any in color before harvest time?

Thank you so much for that info. I figured it was a cross pollination based in what I've been reading, but honestly had no clue if what I was reading was accurate or if what I had could possibly even be edible at this point. I hope it's good eats, that's for sure! Think it will turn orange at some point? When do I take it off of the vine? It's enormous in my mind, and all of the other pumpkins seem to be so tiny on the vine comparatively. Is it because this monster is sucking the life out of the vine and nothing is left for the other pumpkins? I live in Pennsylvania and started it from seed, planted it he tiny new plant in the ground back in late may. Funny thing is how I have it planted mixed in with all if my bushes. This truly was an experiment. Never ever done anythingg like it before. Tomatoes yes, but never anything so awesome as a pumpkin!!

That is beautiful! I have always been one to enjoy mixing vegetables into landscape gardens.

One can tell when almost any squash or pumpkin is ready to pick when the skin is too hard to puncture with a fingernaiil. Don't go by color. Go by the hardness of the skin. If in doubt, leave the fruit on the vine longer, even until the stem goes dry. But don't let it get frosted.

I mainly freeze our squash/ pumpkins. By the way, I call all of them squash and mean no offense. It's just easier. Also, my family and I lived in Mexico for about 13 years and came to love a Mexican drink called atole. Atole can be made with a number of ingredients. One is pumpkin. Here's a link to a recipe for pumpkin atole. It's delicious!

George

Here is a link that might be useful: pumpkin atole

George, your pumpkins look amazing! How do you compare them taste-wise to sugar pumpkins? I am growing the winter luxury and can't wait to taste it :). I will have to try the drink. Which part of Mexico did you live in? I got to visit Mexico for a few months and I loved it.

I have not tried Winter Luxury, though I have heard from dependable sources that it is superb. I can only guess, but I suspect that Winter Luxury is a tad bit finer grained and better tasting; though that is only a guess. I wouldn't grow Winter Luxury in our environment. It is possible to do. But it is risky. For instance, I am attempting to produce seed of Dolma Kabak, a Turkish summer squash. It's been since 2007 that I managed to coax one of these to the point of producing mature, seed bearing fruit. I planted four hills, lost one early on, and am in the process of losing another hill. Who knows if I'll get mature seed? Dolma Kabak is a c. pepo, just like Winter Luxury. Scarchuks Supreme is a c. pepo, acorn squash, with some borer resistance. I have two hills of that planted and so far, so good.

We lived in central Mexico, five years in the Sierra North of Puebla, almost to the state of Veracruz; and 8 1/2 years in the State of Hidalgo, about 100 miles straight North of Mexico City.

We LOVE pumpkin atole as a light evening meal, on a cold winter night. It's great for dipping sourdough bread. In Mexico I only ever ran into it at Christmas programs in church. But after we returned to the US, in 2001, I set about reconstructing the recipe. Using pumpkin pie spices was my own innovation.

George

Thanks for the recipe! Can't wait to try it :)

George, I spent most of my time in Cuernavaca. I flew into Mexico City and visited a few different places. I went in the spring so I missed out on this drink but I will make it at home.
I don't have the SVB and feel for you all that do. That bug sounds terrible. I just have stink bugs and squash bugs but have only seen stink bug so far this year. I would probably only grow butternut if I did to avoid it. Sounds like a nightmare.

If my produce grows enough, I will make that drink. Or I can just grab a pumpkin at a Farmer's Market if I don't get any and make it. Maybe for Christmas too :)

Well guys and gals, I harvested my first pumpkin from the patch so I could enter it in the county fair. It hurt my soul to cut it off the vine because I'm sure it would have grown more. Here it is! A 36 pound polar bear, riding in my floor board. :)

What a beautiful pumpkin!

Be sure to tell us how it fares at the fair :)

George, I love those Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkins! Are they good carving pumpkins?

They should be good for carving. Though they are WAY better eating than a normal jack o'lantern type pumpkin.

Beautiful pumpkin!!

A blue ribbon! My only "competition" was that orange pumpkin. Those cushaws are HUGE!! To give you an idea, my white pumpkin weighs 36 pounds!

OMG that is a wonderful pumpkin, will you have seeds to swap?? i will take some!!! congrats!!!!

Congrats!

Gorgeous pumpkin! I've never thought about entering pumpkins in the fair. That would be fun. Maybe next year I could enter a small one in! Unless I get a big yard :)

I'd never thought of it either (never even been to the county fair!) but I looked it up yesterday and ours is in the beginning of October AND you can enter pumpkins.

Fingers crossed, I'm going to follow Lcaroline's lead if I have a nice big one!

You should enter, StephanieHS! That sounds like a lot of fun. A family member used to enter roses but I never thought about entering my pumpkins. What fun! Mine is in a month so I think I missed enrollment this year. I used to show animals at the local fair a looonnnngggg time ago lol.

gardengal13, I can only speak about my local fair, but there was no enrollment needed since I entered in open class for adults. If I were in a youngster in 4H I'd have to enroll prior, but not for regular open class. I wonder how your fair works? Call your local fair board, or start with your extension office if you don't know who to call.

Do it, Stephanie! And then post pictures!!