Comments | boxie: The Problem With Pumpkins

boxie

The Problem With Pumpkins

Aug 24, 2010 10:29

Pumpkins are pretty cool. You can carve them, they make great decorations and they make some nifty pies that I can smother in whip cream.

Growing them is not so cool. Especially when you have a very limited space to grow them.

( Read more... )

gardening, pumpkins

Comments 4

merlekitty August 25 2010, 16:28:24 UTC

Well, also, are they sugar pumpkins or carving pumpkins?

Carving pumpkins are actually genetically engineered gourds that are more like squash. They had very little flavor, grow really big, and if you plant their seeds, you get a crapshoot of random gourds.

If they're sugar pumpkins, they're generally really small, about the size of your hand, sweet, and dense.

At least, this is what I've learned from years of scratch baking pumpkin pies :)

boxie August 25 2010, 16:32:37 UTC

Ah, you're getting ahead of the story :-)

The seeds are for carving pumpkins, so medium to large gourds would be the expectation. I didn't think about them for eating purposes for 2 reasons, one, carving pumpkins tend to not taste good and 2, the ground I was using was rank with pesticides and weed killer. I used a bit of vegetable gardening soil, but I would probably need a ton more before I would consider eating what grew from it.

Got a bit busy today, but I hope to have some time to continue the story.

merlekitty August 25 2010, 16:34:45 UTC

Cool! I always wanted to try planting carving pumpkins. I've heard because of how genetically spliced they are, you end up getting all sorts of crazy pumpkins.

boxie August 25 2010, 18:03:53 UTC

You can get some odd shapes and sizes from them. It just takes up a lot of space. Looking back now, I really should have started with the sugar pumpkins. They would have fit better in the limited space I had. I was just thinking of having some pumpkins for carving and basically decorating the front steps during Halloween and thanksgiving.

You can even find seeds for those super pumpkins, the ones you see pictures of from county fairs. Those aren't really good for anything except showing off a monstrosity of a pumpkin.

With how things ended up, its not likely I'll try growing pumpkins again for a while.