[Riala]

Help!

I put 4 pumpkin plants in my raised bed at the my new house, and they are slowly spreading over to my lettuce, leeks and carrots.... is it possible to 'cage' pumpkins like you do cucumbers, or can I lift them and tub them?

I only ask, because I would prefer not to pick out all but one plant, but I think I might not successfully transplant them anywhere else unless i am able to lift all the soil as well?

I have no fruit, but I have 4 yellow flowers on one of the plants, and 1 flower on another.

(Will add pics later when the rain stops and I can take a pic)

[dizzylizzie]

good luck with them......mine left the beds weeks ago, they were taking over the garden....now they are taking over the world... lol x

[Beetroot queen]

Mine have taken over the paths I will need a helicopter to drop me in soon, I keep trying to lift them and pop them inside the bed sides, but I think I am going to loose

(how big are they going to get )

[Lady Lottie]

I read somewhere..........you can train the vine by pinning it to the ground (gently I presume...) in a circle.  I guess you could pinch out a few shoots if you have some fruit that looks like it is going to develop well.

But I am def no expert!  Its the first year I have grown anything.  I have planted six but they can scramble where they like as I don't need the space for anything else.  I might experiment training one to see what happens though...

Best of luck!

[chimaera]

Person on the plot next to me grown them up a frame; actually a giant pallet, which is at a 70-80 degree angle. They seem to cling on themselves and can support moderate sized fruit (football size) Because of tht he has something like 6 plants in a 1x5m strip.

Charlie

[dizzylizzie]

my pumpkins, like the rest of my gardenhas got out of control while ive been building runs for chucks ....well the rain and wind dont help either..... but i like my pumkins so i am leaving them to see what happens ....and see if they will take over the world

[maverick]

I put three plants in my raised bed and I never would have believed anyone if they told me that they would grow the way they have!

One vine snapped somehow - but I still have two left and one of those in particular is trying to take over the World 

I trained it to come sideways cross the raised bed having gone about 4ft lengthways towards my broad beans. It certainly changed course but has now gone over the top of the raised bed and is moving accross the rest of the garden!

What's the score with cross pollinating? I naively just assumed that the bees would do their thing etc, but now I read that I perhaps should be using a paintbrush to cross pollinate? There seem to be little fruit developing beind some of the flowers - would be interested to know what others are doing.

[DD.]

I think in this instance, you mean pollinate, as opposed to cross-pollinate. I've used this before, but this is a next generation result of when my pumpkin cross-pollinated with a marrow.



The insects should do their business, they certainly have on mine, but to be sure there's not harm in dong it yourself.

[Riala]

So... I could train them to grow over the side of my raised bed instead of across the other veg?

[maverick]

DD - you can tell I'm new to this  I did mean pollinate. I've got plenty of bees around the garden, but I will give it a go on the weekend, no harm as you say.

Riala - I'm no expert as you can see, but my natural instinct was to gently turn the vine away from my broad beans. I had no idea it would shoot out over my raised bed though

[Faz]

I only grew pumpkins once and the two plants both grew to around 15 feet in length and sent of loads of side shoots that also grew to great lengths! I didn't try and train them, I was frightened to go near them in case they swallowed me! 

I did get a pumpkin so big that I could lift it until it had been hollowed out though, which was nice!

These days I prefer to grow something a little less scary!!!

[The Norfolk Turkey]

On pollination..... weve got very few insects, so was going to go to work with a paintbrush - do pumpkins have male and female flowers like cucumbers, and if so, how can you tell which is which?

[mumofstig]

Same as for cucumbers...........flowers with a baby fruit behind are female
I don't usually bother with a paint brush.....i pick an open male flower pull of the petals and 'poke' it deeply into the female flower and leave it there Seems to work

[The Norfolk Turkey]

Righto... Im sure theres a joke to be made there somewhere.......   

[Paul Plots]

So... I could train them to grow over the side of my raised bed instead of across the other veg?

You're in charge - it's your garden - show them who's boss. If they are clambering off where you don't want them gently lift the growing shoots and point them in another directions - round in circles if you want or back where they came from or onto themsleves....where ever best suits.

If this fails to curtail their wandering use a sharp knife and simply cut off the bits that are off for a wander.... as long as you leave enough leaf for the plant to grow and produce enough energy to put into producing its fruit there should be no problems...

Of course you'll want to avoid chopping off what looks like worthwhile fruit that is forming but if you really need to a bit of a trim should do no harm.

I wouldn't try lifting the plant and resiting it... it's chancy especially if it has reached any size. If your plants are really too much for the available space - thin them by digging one up and dumping it (or havng a go at transplanting - you might be lucky if it is kept out of full-sun for a few days)

As someone has said.... they will go up as well as across - so a few sticks / a frame or something to clamber up can be useful. You may need to do an initial bit of encouoraging and use some soft string to help them anchor to begin with.

You can see where some sci-fi writers got their ideas from!! They seem to have minds of their own.  :blink: