PUMPKIN

I PLANTED A PUMPKIN PLANT WELL TWO PLANTS AND LOOK WHAT I HAVE NOW YES IT IS A PUMPKIN. 

AHHH.

There's a fungus among us.

See that white powdery nonsense on the sad leaves?  That would be a moldy, nasty fungus.  I'll be spraying it with a vegetable-friendly fungicide, but I already had to pull up one of my zucchinis because it had such a bad fungal infection.

This kind of fungus can occur when it rains a lot and the leaves get wet in a humid environment.  The humidity prevents the leaves from drying out and hairy leaves like pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber get moldy and then die.   Heavy rains followed by humidity?  Why, you just described Maryland's climate to the T.

Stay dry,

Christine

Pumpkin Paradise

I'll say it once and I'll say it again- pumpkin flowers are beautiful. Also, they're enormous.  This is yet another male flower from the pumpkin plant on the right.  No lady flowers yet, but it's only a matter of time.  Pumpkin, zucchini, and other squash typically produce male flowers for a few weeks before producing a lady flower, perhaps to alert local pollinators that there are lovely flowers blooming in the area.  The male flowers don't last nearly as long as the female ones, simply because the female flowers later become pumpkins and the male flowers do not.

Exceeding Expectations

Look familiar? This is my garden immediately after mulching.  The tomato plants were huge! The pumpkins were finding their soil nice, and I planned to put some herbs in front of the zucchini on the left.  Well, I don't think I can do that anymore...

Perspective

Some of my plants grow better than others.  I bought the cucumber maybe a month and a half ago and, although it flowers and I assist in pollinating it, it doesn't seem to grow at all.  I planted the pumpkin maybe 2-3 weeks ago and it was the same size as the cucumber.  Maybe the cucumber needs a little more shade? I hope so, because it's about to get it!

Pumpkins have Enormous Flowers

I never thought pumpkins would have big yellow flowers the size of lilies.

The first pumpkin plant flowered! I haven't yet seen the inside of the flowers, since they only bloom for a few hours a day, usually in the morning.  I've checked as early as 6:30 am with no luck.  Unfortunately, the bottom flower got pulverized.  Thankfully, it was a male flower, which is way more common on the plant (and in life, am I right ladies? just kidding).  Here's a picture to help identify male and female flowers on pumpkin plants brought to us by the Missouri Botanical Garden:

Source: Missouri Botanical Garden

The flower on the left is a male flower, the flower on the right is a female flower.  The more you know, right?  There are usually fewer female flowers than male flowers, since only the female flowers will bear fruit.  I am going to wake up super early tomorrow and see if I can catch a flower opening.  Fingers crossed.

Have a wonderful day!

Christine