Hey Stephanie I'm growing Atlantic giants myself. I'm actually having great luck. If you have any questions let me know

That's awesome - thanks! How far along are your pumpkins? I sowed a little later than I would've liked due to weather. My plant is just starting to vine. It's doing pretty well but I am having some yellowing on the leaves. I think it's from too much water - not my fault though, Mother Nature to blame!

I started my plants indoors then transplanted outdoors late April. Mother Nature has been providing lots of rain for me also. Because of the weather I built a small hot house over my plants. It really helped with controlling the temp and amount of water.

That looks like a beautiful robust plant! The hot house was a great idea. We've been getting slammed by rain. Here's a pic of my yellowing leaf. I THINK it's due to too much water

Yeah probably so. We're waterlogged here in Texas too. My green beans look yellowed like that too.

Hey ccabal, I hope you're not in one of the areas with the horrid flooding. Texas is all over the news. Enough, mother-nature!

My suggestion would be to shelter the plant if at all possible. I just made a small frame out of 1/2 inch PVC pipe and painters plastic. It is working well to control how much water my plant receives. when it rains it washes away all the nutrients from the plant. It looks like you have a lack of nitrogen. If you buy some liquid kelp and mix it with water and spray top and bottom of leaves it should bring it back.

joshgurule66 - thanks! I have seaweed already, I'll try doing a foliar feeding and see if it helps. I'll also have to commission my hubby to construct me something to keep rain off. My plant is doing so well otherwise, vining nicely and good sized.

Have you grown atlantics before?

Actually this is my first year growing Atlantic Giants but I've grown many Connecticut field and big max pumpkins with great success. I'm actually trying to get into competition sized pumpkins as a hobby. I will definitely keep you up to date with progress and hope you do the same. I will be starting my own YouTube channel on organic gardening soon

Fortunately our house is not in a flood prone area, so we are good, but we did have some issues in the surrounding area. The worst hit were Houston and the Texas Hill country, with the hard rocky soil, that doesn't absorb water quickly.

But yeah parts of my yard has become like a swamp. Most of my garden area is raised up about 6 inches, fortunately.

Oh by the way I am trying something new this year... bird house gourds. Seedlings just came out yesterday!

I'd love that! This is my first year growing an Atlantic dill, my second year growing pumpkins - it is so much fun! I have 5 kids obsessed with Halloween so this is how I get them out in the garden with me. I'm not necessarily shooting for a competition sized pumpkin, just the world's coolest jack o lantern :) but I did get my seeds from a 700+ lb pumpkin.

Last year, I had a lot of plants. This year my space is smaller so I have just one plant which makes me nervous. Do you have more than one plant or just the one?

Ccabal I'm glad you faired okay.

what a cool idea - birdhouse gourds! Will you post some pics later?

I grew them last year. Like you, I wasn't trying for any records, just
some nice big pumpkins. Ended up keeping 3 pumpkins. We lost a fourth
as it rotted. Overall we were very satisfied. Moving them was however,
a pita. I saved seed and started them again this year. Hopefully
we'll be moderately successful again this year. Here's my daughter
showing off her 'punkins'.

Gastone21 that's awesome! That's exactly what I'm hoping for. Unfortunately there's some wrong with my plants and I'm either going to have to give up on this year or start over :( Do you remember how long your Dill's took?

It took awhile for female flowers to present. I'd go out and hand pollinate each morning and look for squash borers. The pumpkins are a bit more resilient to squash borers as they'll send out roots wherever the touch earth. Still a nuisance though. Occasionally I'd abort a fruit as I didn't want *too* many giant pumpkins. I was still hand pollinating in July. The thing with these giants is that when they are ripe, even at moderate sizes like mine were, they are a pain to move and store. Having them ripen as close to Halloween as possible was ideal for me. So having them set fruit later in the season worked perfectly. We also did some smaller varieties that set fruit sooner, but were much easier to store.

Well mine will be late in the season for sure - if I start over I'll have exactly 130 days or so until Halloween! Your daughter is adorable btw - I have 1 about that age :) How many Dills did you grow per plant? 1 or more? I'd love to get even one like that!

I think I had two plants in the ground. All told I probably had about ten fruit set. I think two or three rotted, more were aborted by me, and I ended up with 3-4 large pumpkins. Call it two per plant.

Very cool. Last year I had 6 plants, not Dills just a variety of pumpkins. My new home has a much smaller growing space so I have 2 plants this year - 1 dill 1 winter luxury. I suppose it's kinda silly to try to grow a Dill with a single plant, sure doesn't allow for error does it? Fingers crossef

How are your pumpkins coming along?