GIANT Pumpkin

[Meow]

i would like to grow a gianormous pumpkin.
my allotment is divided into 3Mx2M beds i have decided to allocate one of these to growing a gianormous pumpkin and i would like some advice on how to achieve a whopper.
i'm concidering Dills giant atlantic pumpkin seed as the picture on the seed packet looks impressive. what would you recommend with regards to variety and fertalizer and general technique to get a big un! Ta

[MKG]

Oh come on, everyone! I'm dying to read the responses to this. I thought about "reverse engineering a gianormous coach" but thought better of that one.

Mike

PS - Sorry Meow - I'm not poking fun, but I suspect that the majority of people on here would be happy growing any old pumpkin.

[grahamhobbs]

I remember an expert on growing his prize winning pumpkin saying he fed it with a pint of beer a day. Somehow I'd settle for a smaller pumpkin and a bigger belly.

[MKG]

Now that I think about it, I seem to remember a documentary ...

One of the big things is to be absolutely ruthless and allow only one pumpkin per plant. Then it's feed, feed, feed, water, water, water. After a year, you'll have a reasonable size set of pumpkins. Save the seed of the biggest (and so don't even think about starting with F1s). Do the same in your second year ... and third ... and so on.

Eventually, if you're lucky, you get giant pumpkins.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

Really?! I suppose if you are into growing prize winning giant pumpkins you would go to extremes as those kind of people are always portrayed as completely batty on the TV!

I would just choose a variety of pumpkin which grows big and hope for the best.

[theabsinthefairy]

I grow a big pumpkin every year for a local contest - my first year was a Big Max, and now I use the seeds from the original pumpkin.

I grow mine on a hot compost bed (which basically means the area of the garden I have designated to be my next year's seedling compost) and just throw on some horse/chicken/rabbit manure, with just one turn of the garden fork, then a 3 or 4 seeds and a good watering. A rich compost will give a heavier pumpkin as it has more flesh, lots of watering will give a larger pumpkin (circumference wise) but lighter as the centre will have hollow spaces - this is not scientific fact - but what I have observed with my pumpkin experiments.

After that, once sprouting runners, allow just one pumpkin per plant, but allow it to flower or you won't get good seeds for the next year.

I came second last year with a smaller looking pumpkin but it weighed 7 kilos more than the third place ( I didn't water it excessively during the dry autumn). First place went to a Cinderalla coach of a pumpkin weighing 47 kilos (mine was 39 kilos), which was grow alongside a mill race - very fertile and very wet.

Good luck