Pumpkin peril and a tomato experiment
The whole vegetable gardening season seems to have come down to the pumpkins for some reason.
Maybe it's because I like to eat pumpkins, and I can't say that about a lot of vegetables. (I planted pie pumpkins, not the jack-o-lantern types.) Or maybe it's because pumpkins are a traditional fall symbol.
Last year I mistakenly assumed pumpkins were as sturdy as they looked and thought they would endure light frosts. They turned to mush. So when frost was predicted last week, we went to the trouble of covering the garden beds for the first time ever. We took extra care with the pumpkin bed. We took off the covers to let the sunshine in during the day and put them back on at night. We kept watching the weather forecasts and stopped covering them last week when the forecast was 36 degrees or higher.
I didn't check the pumpkins for a day or two, and when I did, this is what I found: wilted vines. No matter what the forecasts said, it had been below freezing in my pumpkin patch.
I cut the dark one off and put it in the garage; I think (hope) it's ripe. I'm leaving the one in the foreground there and watching it closely in hopes the rest of the green will disappear.
Yes, I'm making this big a deal out of two pumpkins! How much scraping and baking do you think I want to do?
Oh, do you see the small green blobs in the foreground? Those are supposed to be watermelons. What a joke. On me. I wonder if they are so late because of a pollination problem. There is so much to learn about growing vegetables! No wonder I stuck to flowers all those years!
We also had to do something with the tomatoes when the frost came last week. Cory Farley was talking on his radio show about pulling them out by the roots and hanging them inside, so Phil decided to try that in the garage. There must be something to it, because some of the tomatoes are turning red already. We had picked all but the solid green ones before we brought the plants inside.
I never thought Phil would become interested in gardening, but if "growing" tomatoes in the garage is what it takes, it's fine with me!
Maybe it's because I like to eat pumpkins, and I can't say that about a lot of vegetables. (I planted pie pumpkins, not the jack-o-lantern types.) Or maybe it's because pumpkins are a traditional fall symbol.
Last year I mistakenly assumed pumpkins were as sturdy as they looked and thought they would endure light frosts. They turned to mush. So when frost was predicted last week, we went to the trouble of covering the garden beds for the first time ever. We took extra care with the pumpkin bed. We took off the covers to let the sunshine in during the day and put them back on at night. We kept watching the weather forecasts and stopped covering them last week when the forecast was 36 degrees or higher.
I didn't check the pumpkins for a day or two, and when I did, this is what I found: wilted vines. No matter what the forecasts said, it had been below freezing in my pumpkin patch.
Yes, I'm making this big a deal out of two pumpkins! How much scraping and baking do you think I want to do?
Oh, do you see the small green blobs in the foreground? Those are supposed to be watermelons. What a joke. On me. I wonder if they are so late because of a pollination problem. There is so much to learn about growing vegetables! No wonder I stuck to flowers all those years!
We also had to do something with the tomatoes when the frost came last week. Cory Farley was talking on his radio show about pulling them out by the roots and hanging them inside, so Phil decided to try that in the garage. There must be something to it, because some of the tomatoes are turning red already. We had picked all but the solid green ones before we brought the plants inside.
I never thought Phil would become interested in gardening, but if "growing" tomatoes in the garage is what it takes, it's fine with me!
Posted by Laurel at 10/13/2009 10:13 AM 
Categories: Gardening, Growing Food, Seasons
Tags: growing pumpkins hanging tomatoes
Categories: Gardening, Growing Food, Seasons
Tags: growing pumpkins hanging tomatoes
Your pumpkins are beautiful! I thought the vines dying back were the natural sign that the pumpkins were ready to harvest - when I think of the pick your own pumpkin patches around here, the vines look pretty well dead and the pumpkins looks like they are just laying out there. So maybe yours are doing exactly what they should!
The tomato idea looks very cool and it looks like it is working. I'll have to remember that if we get a frost warning. Of course, I would have to find a place in our bulging garage... For now, our problem is going to be torrential rains.
Reply to this
Hmm . . . I hope you're right! They actually did seem to start wilting even while we were covering them every night.
Reply to this