[dizzylizzie]

Hi i wonder if anyone can help please? this is my first year of growing pumpkins, i knew they needed a lot of space, so i pnly put 3 plants in my raised beds. Last week i was so excited because the plants had tiny pumkins on, this week im getting slightly worried because they are now taking over!. Each plant has loads of baby pumpkins on it, with more every day..... someone said i should pull most of them off to let all the goodness go into just a few, thus making them bigger and healthier, is this true? any advice would be most welcome

[Faz]

I think the general advice is to leave no more than 3 on each plant but that if you want a really big pumpkin leave only one pumpkin per plant.

Don't forget they like loads of water and a nice feed with tomato food too!

The only time I have grown pumpkins the plants grew to about 15 feet in length.

[dizzylizzie]

 :blink:    oh no.... this time last week i was so pleased with them i was gonna grow a field full he he he
probably sounds silly , but there is something 'disney' like about them.... the way they grow all twirly
i'll shut now- sorry, thankyou so much for your advice. They get loads of water, but i havent fed them , so thanks for that

[PAULW]

I never remove any pumpkins from my plants I grow BECKY a fruit of about 2 lbs which I feel is about the right size for making soup the more you leave on the plant the more handy a size they will be rather than having a couple of massive ones, I wouldn't know what to do with a 10 lb plus pumpkin

[mumofstig]

When Monty Don was growing pumpkins on GW and comparing yiels...one of his had 8 on! can't remember which one it was though :blink:

[sunshineband]

Can you eat small pumpkins like you ear courgettes?

[mumofstig]

Depends with pumpkins; do you mean they are ripe but small, or picked small...before they ripen.
I think that will tell you the difference.
Summer squash (in other words:differently shaped cougettes) can of course be eaten little

[sunshineband]

I mean small and unripe pumpkins, as opposed to summer squash. I don't usually have enough to even think about eating them early, but this year Baby Bear is runnign amok 

[mumofstig]

I tried butternuts small and unripe, cos last year they were never gonna ripen, and they were gross bleugh. So i would only recommend it to someone i didn't like

[sunshineband]

Thank you for your non- recommendation  Mumofstig

[dizzylizzie]

thanks for all your help and advice
i might leave all the pumkins on 1 plant, take most of them off another, and just leave one on the 3rd so we get smaller ones for soup etc, medium sized for halloween garden dressing, and 1 giant one for my little boy  (hopefully)
one other question, say for example i didnt feed the plants, would that help to control the size, or would that just mean they would die?

[The Norfolk Turkey]

Got any pics dizzylizzie? I pessimistically got our lads to plant a load in our raised beds expecting a poor turnout - bad/good news - weve got six looking like theyre going all the way - first year growing, seemed like a good idea at the time and just beginning to chuckle at the thought of a garden full of pumpkin....!!! Itll be a helluva halloween!!   

[LilyAnne]

Think of a question you want to ask and you find someone got there first.  Mine was going to be did they only produce one fruit. The problem of only just starting out.

I think I'm going to have to sacrifice some of my pumpkin plants.  I've obviously got too many in a small space.  I'd read they needed lots of space, but only a metre.  Mine have just started taking off, but no babies yet unless they have sprouted over the las couple of days.

[8doubles]

I tried butternuts small and unripe, cos last year they were never gonna ripen, and they were gross bleugh. So i would only recommend it to someone i didn't like

I tried some 2-3" b/nuts halved and baked with a cheese and breadcrumb topping and i thought they were ok , nothing like ripe b/nuts but definately edible, unlike aubergines which are not edible at any size 
Worth giving the mini pumpkins a try .

[sunshineband]

I'll be cautious when they get a little larger and let you know