Before Giant Pumpkin Growing Area

Giant Pumpkin Growing Area Under Construction

3' wide, 15' long, 4' deep, trench/mound hole!
(You can see the skyline of Shanghai if look carefully!)

Gavin in Olivenhein: Going for it!

Good afternoon, Pumpkinistas!

The San Diego area growers are very active this season. I received the following update and the four pictures above from Gavin in Olivenhein yesterday. See how easy it is when you have a tractor?

"Hi Stuart!



We took your giant pumpkin class a few weeks ago at Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach and were motivated to try growing our own giant pumpkins (from your pumpkin seeds).

We graded a large section of our hill (images attached) and had our guy also carve out a large trench for us to plant the pumpkins (image attached). The trench is fifteen feet long, three feet wide, and four feet deep (image attached). Our Olivenhein site gets plenty of sun from sunrise to sunset.


The giant pumpkin seeds you gave us have started to grow in their peat pots (image attached) (4 out of 12 seeds have surfaced in 7 days). Given the size of our trench, how many pumpkin seedlings would you recommend planting and how far apart?

Thank you!

Gavin"

Bravo! I'm glad to see that Gavin has embraced the fun, adventure, and major excavation that is the essence of giant pumpkin cultivation.

Note: My suggestion was 2 pairs of seedlings or a total of 4 seedlings planted at opposite ends of the trench, planted 10"-12" apart, eventually culled down to 1 seedling, per end, in 10-21 days.