Larry,
I will send you seed.
Seedmama

Seedmama, thank you. Do you want some of the Seminole when they come in?

Larry

Larry,
I appreciate the offer but wouldn't be able to use them this year. I have "a good handful" of other moschata varieties I can send you sample packs of if you are interested. Many came from Baker Creek and I don't remember where I got the rest.
If there is anything else you are looking for, any kind of vegetable, send me a wish list email and I'll surprise you with what I can. Might as well take advantage of the postage.
Seedmama

Ah, Dana beat me to it. I could have sent you some. The only commercial source, that I know of, is Sandhill Preservation Center. I bet there are a good many synonyms out there: squash which are almost identical if now identical, but which go by other names.

Remember, Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin has RAMPANT vines. However, I dearly love it. It is a sure fire producer, even in drought.

George
Tahlequah, OK

George, those are beautiful. I can hardly wait to get started on this project. The cornfield pumpkins will go in what I call my experimental garden. It is a very small ares where I test questionable organic matter. The vines will be permitted to run as they please,none of my beds have a fence around them.

I thank you for offering the seeds, it is so heartwarming to be a part of such a group.

Larry

George I have a question for you. I grew two vines and they were about 3 foot apart last year. They grew huge and flowered all summer. Neither one ever set one fruit. I still have some seeds you sent and plant on trying again this year. Was wondering if you have any idea why they never set fruit. The spaghetti squash and everything else produced well. The vines was rampant like you said. Jay

Jay, the only possibility which comes to mind is that perhaps you overdosed them on nitrogen? I have never heard of a squash doing this, though I am continually mystified as to why beans, planted in one of my gardens, fail to produce, and one variety of pole bean, which produced great the first year I grew it, refuses to flower ever since.

I do hope Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin does better for you this year. I plan one growing it, and getting it in early. I'm also planning to grow a patch of White Cushaw, which showed great heat resistance two years ago.

George

Jay, Did you check the flowers to make sure you had both male and female flowers? Every now and then I'll have a pumpkin plant that will set only male or only female flowers. I don't know why. Normally the male flowers set first, followed by the female ones but every now and then all I see is male flowers. With two plants, though, I'd be surprised if they both set only flowers of the same sex in your garden. With the female flowers, they are only viable and receptive to pollination on the first day they open, so if you are going to try hand pollinating them, catch them on that first day, preferably in the morning.

Other than the nitrogen excess that George mentioned as a possibility, I can't think of anything else except this:

--a lack of bees or other pollinators to accomplish the task of carrying pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers, or

--excessively dry soil. I have found that in a period of the worst summer drought conditions, the plants can stop producing if the soil gets too dry. They do flower but fruit doesn't form. It is as if they somehow "know" there isn't enough available moisture to make the fruit grow so they don't set any. Last year I guess I wasn't watering the Seminole pumpkins enough in July and early August and they went about a month without setting any new fruit. Then I wised up and watered them heavily and they exploded into bloom and set fruit like crazy.

George, What bean varieties are making you crazy? With me, it is Insuk's Wang Kong. I got flowers and beans the first year from seeds I got from you at the last spring fling we had at the park in OKC, but not the next year. I bought seeds of it from Remy's seed company this past winter and am going to try again. I will plant half my seeds in spring and save the other half to plant in summer for fall.

On the beans that aren't flowering for you, is there a chance they are day-length sensitive and our day-length is too short?

Dawn

I just have to say my 7 year old thinks he's the best gardener in the world because of this pumpkin. We've still got some sitting around ready to be made into pie and muffins. Actually....since it's so cool this week I think I'll get right on that :-)

Mandy, I have fond memories of my two youngest planting a small bed along the back wooden fence and growing 3 pumpkins. They thought they were made of gold.

Larry

Mandy, That is so adorable! I know just how he feels. When I was a kid, it seemed to be "magic" to plant a little seed in the soil and get something big, beautiful and bountiful from it, and I loved the flowers as much as the veggies too.

Larry, Aren't those great memories?

Every spring when the plants take off and start growing, and then again when the harvest starts rolling in, I feel like a child myself....just as pleased as punch with the miracles that grow from every seed, bulb, tuber, corm and rhizome.

Dawn

I made a pumpkin crisp. I thought the sweet topping would make it more palatable for the kids. They tossed the sweet topping and dug into the pumpkin cake and asked for seconds. VERY tasty pumpkin!

Yay! Food from the garden that you grew yourself always is the best, and your kids have learned that at a very young age. Congrats for teaching them that lesson.