Attn Don in Wi - Pumpkin Crop

Don,
How did your pumpkin crop turn out? I live in the general area of you, my pumpkin patch has about half the yield of last year. I planted a row (about 75' long) of "prize winners", real expensive seed and only yielded about 12 pumpkins, much smaller than the "big moons" i planted last year. I also planted a row of "wolf", suppose to have real thick stems, only yielded about 6 pumpkins, the ones that came do have nice stems and look good, but very disappointed with the #'s. Planted 1/2 lb of Pankow seed, they turned out ok, 1/2 lb of howden, not verg good, and 1/4 lb of dependable seed, also fair. Indian corn came up good, but still isn't dry. Gourds and mini pumpkins turned out good, and planted a short roll of "cotton candy" white pumpkins that turned out ok. May plant more of these next year. Many bugs, looked up on internet, look to be a "squash bug", they are all over, anyone know how to get rid of these?

I use this insecticide called Admire Pro when we plant.We have a drum mounted on the planter and it comes out thru a sprayer nozzle right between the disc openers.Pretty expensive stuff,but it keeps the bugs(especially cucumber beetles)off the plants till they' re pretty good size.
Our crop is about half sized at least this year(NW PA)and it looks like our problem is going to be black rot.

I'm interested to hear from Don too. I haven't seen or heard much from him since he got married - must be spending lots of quality time with the new missus (wink wink)!

I live east of Don by Lake Michigan. I didn't do too bad this year, all things considered. I replanted my squash twice and still ended up buying a few plants to fill in. My decorative gourds, baby-boo and jack-be-little's did great. Some white pumpkins I tried rotted after first planting, then only half made it second time. My Blue Moon's never made it - two year old seed and I think it was a little moldy before I even planted. My Conneticut field pumpkins - the last thing I planted and worried the most about since they endured 4 days of straight rain in June - are doing great. I will say my yeild is down but this year I got rid of the woodchuck family before they could do any damage so I should be o.k. and should be loading up the wagon soon!

The squash beetles or cucumber beetles can be sprinkled with "sevin" powder at first sight. I use an old flour sifter and keep them knocked down until their is too much folliage to see any more.

Good Luck,
Bill

The cucumber bettles (yellow) i kill with seven, but the squash bug (flat, black/gray, when you squish it it ozzes blue fluid and has an ordor) doesn't seem to die with seven. Looking on line, it looks like they live under the leaves, so hard to get with any spray. I'll maybe try to get some pictures of them the next day or so (i have to work late tomorrow so probably not until Thursday)

What do you big growers (that is bigger than my small patch) do for weed control? Myself, I just cultivate the weeds out untill the plants grow togather and I cant get down through with the tiller. Then I just let the weeds go.I think it is better to just let it go and the weeds keep moisture in the soil instead of hoeing out weeds as the sun and drought can do the plants in quickly if it gets dry in July. I think my patch did pretty well, irrigated it enough to keep the plants alive in July, and the weeds have kept the pumpkins hidden so far from the deer. I just raise enough for myself, neighbor kids, and a few to sell by the road.

I didn't help my brother with his pumpkins this year, but they aren't quite as nice as they were last year as far as volume goes, but there isn't as much problem with rot so far he says. He planted lots of the cool pumkins squash and gourds, and they all grew pretty good for him.

He's gonna be doing pick your own this year too.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Squash Bugs are my mortal enemies.

In my garden patch (modest size -- I'll probably finish the year with about 500# of stuff harvested) I finally controlled them by aggressively search for egg masses -- a couple hours a week from July 1 through August 15 did the trick. I'm still harvesting some summer squash 2 months after the plants put out their first ones! Never got past mid-August since I moved here before.

In Connecticut, Squash Bugs are resistant to Sevin. The other chemicals like Rotenone are only effective on the nymphs, and unfortunately are also bad for the bees -- since the eggs are being laid when the plants are flowering, it's pretty impossible to properly spray for the nymphs often enough to be effective and not seriously impact your pollinators.

As I understand it, commercial growers are less impacted since they have bigger fields then home gardeners. Since the bugs harbor over the winter in the woodline, in commercial fields there is relatively few squash bugs over wintering to the size of the patch. Only squash bugs that have over-wintered lay eggs. I think they have stronger pesticides they can use, too.

There's a man in Ohio that raises pumpkins and seems to have a good crop. He irrigates during the dry weather. Hal

is there money in pumpkins?? How much do they sell for ?? Is it hit or miss from year to year?