I do small area decorations. I was like you Dawn, I had just about stopped decorating, then my grandson came along and BOOM!!! I could say I decorate for him but I am just as bad. Next year weather permitting I will raise my own pumpkins and gourds.

Todays cool weather sure gets me wishing for fall but I know we still have hot weather to go.

Tried to grow gourds, pumpkins, Indian corn, and millet. Indian corn and millet did alright. Pumpkins have mostly died from borer and powder mildew, and the remainder aren't pollinating. Hopefully something changes soon.

would love to grow pumpkins, but the groundhogs would just eat them. well, that may be okay since we grow cantaloupe for them.

when do we plant pumpkins?

I haven't had much of a problem with things being eaten this year. I tossed a couple of tomatoes that had bird pecks but hadn't seen other damage. I am still picking cucumbers and have been giving some large ones to the chickens, but today I had so many that I decided to process them. I made 8 pints of pickles and went through my Mrs Wages mixes looking for something else to make with cucumbers. I had a pack of Jalapeno Relish Mix, so I ran out to pick enough Jalapeno peppers to make that. As I reached down to pick the peppers, I saw two Bianca sweet bell peppers on the next vine and both had the bottom eaten out of the pepper. They were about a foot above the ground and the last plant in the row. I need to figure out what ate those since nothing ever bothers my peppers.

For a spring planting, the OSU-recommended planting dates are:

Pumpkins April 10-30 or later (depends on when you want to harvest them)

Winter Squash May 15 June 15

For a fall planting, the OSU recommended planting dates are:

Pumpkins & Winter Squash July 15-30

Note I listed both winter squash and pumpkins. That's because many of the more decorative (and mostly non-orange) pumpkins actually are winter squash. Also, technically speaking, all pumpkins are winter squash but not all winter squash are pumpkins.

The spring planting dates for pumpkins is earlier because the types of winter squash that we call pumpkins (C. pepo and C. maxima types) will germinate in slightly cooler soils. By planting them in April, you have the best chance of getting plants off to a good, fast start so they are larger and more resilient when the SVBs show up, which may help them survive the SVBs. The types of winter squash we commonly refer to as winter squash generally need warmer soils for soil germination, so they are planted later in spring or even in early summer. The fall planting dates are the same because soil temperatures are plenty warm in July.

If you've never grown squash or pumpkins, you may not have any squash vine borers around. I didn't have any for he first 7 or so years. Once they find you, though, you'll have them about 9 years out of 10.

Carol, I've never had much eat peppers, but the pests I have found eating sweet peppers are turtles. They also love to eat low-hanging tomatoes. I've seen them stand up on their hind legs, with their front legs resting on the plant, a stake or a cage, and eat both peppers and tomatoes. So, maybe you have turtles. I've never seen squirrels eating sweet peppers but I think maybe they do because I've found half-eaten peppers higher up on a plant than any ground-based turtle or rabbit could reach.

jmichigan, I wonder why they aren't pollinating. You know you can hand-pollinate, right? Just use a small paintbrush (the kind from a watercolor set is fine) or Q-tip to transfer the pollen from the male flower to the female flower. It is easy. It works best early in the day shortly after the flowers have opened up.

Squash vine borers are the bane of my existence and totally destroyed my ability to grow all the many kinds of pumpkins and squash that I used to grow. One of these days, we're going to build a hoop house covered in netting to keep them out, though it might not happen until Tim retires.

Dawn

What is the timetable for Seminole after fruit set? Mine are just now setting fruit with lots of blooms and fruit up to a couple of inches. They will still have time to ripen won't they? The vine is getting huge.

They should have time to ripen up just fine. It can take them a while, but I've never had to worry about them not getting ripe before the really cold weather arrives. Their very thick rind also makes them very tolerant of freezing temperatures. While it is not ideal for them to be exposed to sub-freezing temperatures, I have missed them sometimes when harvesting the day before the first hard freeze and didn't find them until a couple of weeks later when I began cleaning up the dead vines. The ones I found underneath the dead vines were dark green, so I just lined them up in the garage and they slowly turned buff color over the next few weeks and were just as tasty as all the ones I harvested, cured and had indoors in storage before the first freeze arrived. I've had Seminoles that set from September blossoms manage to ripen before the first freeze in mid- to late-November, so any that have formed already should be fine and have lots of time to ripen, even if your first freeze is earlier than usual this year.

Remember, you also can harvest them anytime right after they bloom and use them as summer squash. I often harvest them from 1 to 3 days after the flower blooms, and slice them and use them like summer squash. Once they reach the size of a very large navel orange, that's about the max size I'll use as a winter squash.

A good, healthy, happy Seminole vine or two that is producing heavily can provide you with enough Seminoles to last a year or two. I've had them last at least 18 months in perfect storage conditions as long as they were properly cured. It is sort of amazing how long they last.

oh, too late for us to plant pumpkins for our ground hogs. thanks