Ok so my family is having a large pumpkin contest. I'm determined to win. I've never grown pumpkins before. My plants currently are about 2 feet wide by 1 1/2 tall no long vines yet and no blossoms. Seem to be doing really well. I bought some "wallaces whopper seeds". It says 500 lb punkin is pretty easy. I got them growing under black plastic on a drip line with my melons. There growing in one of my cattle pens. There was about 3" of old manure through the whole thing that is 2 years old. I tilled it all in before planting. Plants have been in the ground for 2 weeks and have quadrupled in size. Any tips for growing large ones? Can someone verify that this is a good variety. I have a truck scale at the house I can weigh it on. Any tips would be great. Help me out folks. We got money riding on this. !!!!!!

One vine, one pumpkin on it and feed it milk.

Inject it into the vine? How much and what frequency ?

I’ve grown multiple over 500. The milk thing is a myth. If you want to invite pests and disease to your vines then by all means, give it milk. Best advice is to feed heavy, LOTS of water, one pumpkin per vine and make sure to position your pumpkin 90 degrees from the main vine to avoid it tearing away from the vine due to fast growth and put a shade over thebpumpkin to keep the sun from damaging it.

So I run my drip line with a drip portion of the line next to the plants for 90 min every other day. Do you think the black plastic with the increased soil temp will help. What about fertilizer?

And I have read about shading them. Will definitely do that. When do I thin the pumpkins. Say it has 3 pumpkins on the plant how big do I let them get before I decide which to keep. And keep the biggest one?

We used the milk as a fertilizer. We didn't inject it, just "watered" it with some when we milked.

Or, you can buy some fertilizer that has calcium in it.

Dills Atlantic giants grow really rapidly. Once the pumpkins come on behind the flower, within a week you should be able to tell which is your largest. Keep him. The plastic should help but be sure to keep the dirt hilles around the the base of the plant. 90 min of soaker should do the trick but your plant will tell you if it’s enough or not. The need a few gallons a day. I plant my seeds with a little bone meal and then a little 10-10-10. Once they start vining, I give them an epsom salt soak every other week and fish emulsion on the off weeks. If you’re not organic, make sure you spray for those dreaded squash vine borders also. They will kill every vine you have. If one does happen to lay egg in the base of the stalk, make sure you hit a little hole and get the larvae out and seal the whole back up with some Elmer’s glue. I’ve got mine in the ground ready to break my record this year!

Matanuska Valley, AK !!

MILK! I saw the thread and that's the first thing that ran through my mind. The melons grow well on milk too. Not near as well as pumpkins but we grew MASSIVE ones of both when we had to treat our cow one year. Just poured it right on them morning and evening. Might get expensive if you don't have a cow though. $15+ in California!