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Hi, I'm new to the board, but I've been growing pumpkins since I was little. I got out of it for a few years, but this year started up again. Now that I'm older I am hit by the huge number of kinds of pumpkins to grow and I really want to get good ones.

I live in Michigan and want to grow some for cooking with and some for seed, but their are so many kinds, does anyone have a favoret? I would like to get a kind that is resistent to as many pest and diseases as I can, while still having good flesh/hull-less seeds.

This year I grew Cinderella's Carraige to test the land. One plant has grown to 54'x 38+' despite vine length being noted at 8-10 feet on the packet. Is this an unushual sized vine for C. maxima or is it as over-sized as I think it is?

Okay, last question. There are no pumpkin contest around here, so the use of a giant pumpkin is limeted. Would it be worth growing one for some other reason? I would guess I could get a real big one judging by the results of the "small" ones I grew this year, but I have no idea what I would do with the thing o_O

Thanks for your help everyone ;)

8/24/2004 5:33:59 PM

Ohio

Darcie,
I Think if you would grow a AG pumpkin, Just watching it gain up to 20 to sometimes 50 pounds a day is enough to do with one,lol. Try it you will get hooked ;-)

8/24/2004 7:07:30 PM

[email protected]

AG's aren't very sweet so cooking requires the addition of sugar I have heard. (I don't cook)

Pepo Varieties I've heard are good:

Sugar Treat
New England Pie
Winter Luxury

8/24/2004 7:16:22 PM

[email protected]

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins/varieties.html

I'm not sure how I forgot CT Field.

http://outreach.missouri.edu/callaway/jarman-news/Jarman_2000/jarman_2000_oct25.html

8/24/2004 7:17:53 PM

Aldie, VA

Hrm, if you are in MI, what about the MI State Fair or the Romulus Pumpkin Fest? There has to be a ton of other ones, too.

Roan

8/24/2004 7:20:05 PM

Aldie, VA

Darcie,

Check out this:
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/festival.htm

There are five festivals there listed for giant pumpkins and they don't include the two I already listed.

8/24/2004 7:27:11 PM

Western Pa.

Darcie,

The Cinderellas are EXCELLENT for cooking! Check out our recipe for "kilr pumpkin crunch" in the recipe section of this site!

8/24/2004 8:17:04 PM

Kenyon, Mn.

Darcie, I have a big bunch of seed from an old Heirloom variety called "Long Pie", seeds; ifin Ya want em'! They grow about 18 inches long and about 8 inches in diameter, they are about the best I have ever raised for pies. Mine our doing fine and i am growing them on the garden fence.

8/24/2004 9:13:06 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

I second Cinderellas...

8/25/2004 9:13:45 PM

Thanks everyone. I'll see how the cinderellas trun out this year and then move from their :)

8/26/2004 7:05:20 PM

Mr. Bumpy, can I get back to you on that offer in another month or so? I want to try my cinderella's, but your old fation longs sure are tempting ;)

8/26/2004 7:18:33 PM

Kenyon, Mn.

Sure Thing Darcie, When ever you like just email me. I've grown Rouge Vif Estampes (cinderella) before, and thery Are excellent, but not as good as long pie, I just get this NERVOUS TWITCH, growing other C.Maxima varieties around the Babies! some LONG PIE History:
The Long Pie Pumpkin, which looks like an overgrown green zucchini in the garden, doesn’t turn orange until well into storage, yet makes pies which can only be described as “divine.” Said to have originated on the Isle of St. George in the Azores and been brought to Nantucket in 1832 on a whaling ship, it was at first known as the Nantucket Pumpkin as it migrated north to Maine. By the 1930s Long Pie had long been the pie pumpkin of choice among gardeners and growers in Androscoggin County, who may not even have been aware that in other parts of the country pie pumpkins were round.

8/27/2004 3:56:41 PM