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West Auckland , New Zealand

My patch is 14 by 8 mtrs which is about 134 sqr yards . I would like to squeese as many plants in as possible . The main reason being to achieve a few different crosses . I was thinking of planting them all in the middle and growing a main vine off each plant into the corners of my rectangle and prune the secondaires so that they do not overlap to much . And keep them all well fertilized .
would appreciate a bit of feed back

9/17/2007 5:16:45 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

I'd say two full-sized plants(about 400 sq. ft.)each. If crosses are more important than pumpkin size to you, you could grow more like you are thinking.

9/17/2007 5:42:44 PM

Farmville, Virginia (mfowler@hsc.edu)

I think Doug is right on the money with this one. I agree totally.

9/17/2007 6:54:37 PM

West Auckland , New Zealand

Thanks guys i just have to except that i cant have my cake and eat it too . I hate it when that happens . I will just have to increase the size of my patch next season . My wife is not going to be very happy with guys

9/17/2007 7:02:12 PM

Dummer Twp - Ontario

I asked the same question in the spring and everyone said only two plants or one big one. I grew three. all my pumpkins are over 500 pounds but I now see that what went into the third probably would have helped the other two, seeing as how my largest was just weighed in at 744 pounds and went 20% heavy, I'll never know now but it will only be two plants next year, do a better job on two than an ok job on three.

Kirk

9/18/2007 2:19:59 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

Bretski

You could probably grow three plants in this area but will likely need to alow the secondaries to stretch out behond the boundries of the patch. 20'x 20' is the minimum required for eah plant.

Do not plant in the middle unless you only grow 2 plants and grow away from eah other. If you try to grow three or more in this manner you will have vines overlaping each other and it will just be a big mess.

On another note. Less can be more as these plants take an amazing amount of work. I reduced my patch from 12 to 8 plants this year and plan to reduce again to 5 next year, and I have a growing partner to share the work.

9/19/2007 1:01:12 PM

Cduross1@rochester.rr.com

I did four plants in approx 40x40 patch. Next year I'm thinking 2 plants will be plenty, plant in the middle of the patch, and pollinate like crazy until something takes. The plan for next year is 2 pumpkins per plant and take the one that is growing the fastest. No styrofoam next year either underneath pumpkins.

9/21/2007 10:24:31 PM