Pumpkins in Florida

This summer is the first time I tried my hand at growing pumpkins in central Florida, and it has been a learning experience. Powdery mildew is a nemesis that I fight all through the year with cucurbits. I always use seeds for varieties that are resistant or tolerant, but still will have minor issues. So for the great pumpkin experiment I purchased 'Seminole' pumpkin seeds, despite the fact I am a UF alumni and thus avoid anything remotely supporting our north Florida rivals. The reputation for this variety is that they are practically bullet-proof, resistant to pest and fungal issues.  The other tidbit of advice I read was to trellis the vines as they will take over your garden otherwise. Usually I plant my summer garden seeds by early April at the latest but delayed with these because I did not have a trellis constructed yet. I finally put 4 pumpkin seeds in by early May and did they take off! I swear these vines can grow up to a foot a day.

Dutifully I wound the vines through the trellising to keep them off the ground, which became a daily occurrence  as new vines kept growing off the original plants and running along the ground into other crop beds. Sadly, on Memorial Day weekend a massive hail storm hit our area and beat the absolute hell out of my garden, including the pumpkins. The quarter sized hail tore through the large soft vegetation of the pumpkin leaves and even scarred up the vine itself, which by this point was as thick as my index finger. Within a few days of the hail storm though, I found new vines growing out of the existing plants, and without any hesitation the vines just kept going.

Pumpkin leaf shredded by hail

Pumpkin vines beaten by hail storm

By early June I am about burned out on gardening and the heat and the garden receives little to no attention. Therefore my attentive vine trellising came to an abrupt halt. In addition, the summer rains have been especially active this summer and are usually pouring down just as I am coming home from work in the evening so several days would go by before I would make it into the garden to check on things. Within 2 weeks the vines had run away to the point that I was too intimidated to attempt to corral them. So they were given free reign. Not content to confine themselves to the garden they are now running into the yard and are only held in check by being run over by the mower when they hit the turf areas. All this from 4 seeds!

The vines on the trellis never did rally, but check out

all the new vines that have escaped their designated bed

Pumpkin vine escaping the garden and 

taking over the Pentas

I have established that these vines are indeed prolific and unfazed by Florida's dramatic climatological mood swings. But in terms of fruit production, I am less impressed. It is now the beginning of July and I have found the first evidence of fruit production. Unfortunately they are outside the safely fenced confines of the garden, and my labrador mistaking the young round fruit for balls has been trying to steal them.

Young pumpkin, I am hoping the tomato cage keeps my 

dog from stealing it

I'm not quite sure what I will do with these fruit if they actually make it to maturity, but it's mostly for fun.