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Warwood

I have two patches, one is 30'x 60' the other 45'x 38'.
How many plants would you grow? Does anyone have more than two or three plants and how do you find the time if so? How would you rotate yearly?
How many years can you grow in the same place without disease problems? Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks ahead! Don

12/1/2004 7:12:35 PM

Omaha, NE (N41-15-42 )

Some might disagree, but I think you could easily do 4 plants in the 30 x 60 patch. If you were really wanting to squeeze in the plants, you could plant three sets (rows) of two plants along the 60 feet. The average pumpkin sets on the vine at 11.83 feet. The standard deviation is 3.71, so you could be statistically certain that the pumpkin would set within the first 19.26 feet. With a 60 foot patch, you could do that 3 times. I'd say 4 plants in the other patch s well.

12/1/2004 7:47:26 PM

San Diego

in general, a 20 foot long by 30 wide area is a good size for growing a plant (600 sq ft) using the christmas tree method and a 20 foot main with 15 foot side vines. You can go smaller too if you want more plants, maybe 300 to 400 sq ft per plant. How much time you have will determine how many plants you grow. It is always best to plant less and spend quality time growing each plant compared to too many plants and not enoughtime to do it properly in my opinion. But many growers grow 10 plus plants and love it and do a good job too. I would go with three plants in your 30 by 60 area, maybe 2 or 3 in the other area if you have time. Best wishes, Jimmy

12/1/2004 7:49:26 PM

Wichita, KS

I am devoting about 2800 sqft to 7 plants. Yes I am definitely squeezing them in. I don't have a lot of insect problems (so far), so its not hard for me to keep up with it by visiting twice a week for about 2 hours a visit... give or take a half hour. I don't think they need as much attention as I want to give them, but they will grow out of control if I don't visit the patch at least once a week to prune.

12/1/2004 11:14:07 PM

Woodburn, Indiana

The fewer the plants you have the more you can concentrate to keep them clean and healthy. I grew 12+ plants in 04 with the biggest pumpkin being 754, so I'm cutting back to less than 10. The 754 was on the 501 Beachy.

12/2/2004 11:10:01 AM

Utah

4-5 is all I can handle. but everyone is different.

There are lots of ways you could arrange your plots in your patches, depending on how many plants you want to go with.
3 would work great in your 30x60 patch. I would do that with 20 ft wide and 30 ft long. but you could grow 4 in that patch if you wanted to. you could divide it into 4th - each 15 x 30. or 4 with some funky triangle shaped plots. You could even do 5 funky triangle shaped plots if you wanted to. I can figure it out for each if you want.

in the 45x38 patch I would grow 3 plants - each 570 sq ft.
I'll send you a sketch, or post it here.
gordon

12/2/2004 12:33:57 PM

Utah

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/displayphoto.asp?pid=3509&gid=-3085

and

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/displayphoto.asp?pid=3510&gid=-3085

12/2/2004 12:43:38 PM

Indiana

g1t
you are the man i was trying to figure out how to go from 4 to 3 plants in a 35x40 area and you just figured it out for me Now how would you run the vines on the outer plants? xmas tree on all 3 or xmas tree on the middle one and flag on the outers?
Steve

12/2/2004 3:30:53 PM

Utah

I'd do them all Christmas tree ... run the main from mid point to mid point... but that's just my opinion.

... think out side the rectangle ! lol !

12/2/2004 5:01:12 PM

Utah

For the 30 x 60 ft patch - you could grow 4 plants this way:

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/displayphoto.asp?pid=3511&gid=-3085

12/2/2004 5:03:22 PM

Warwood

Mr. q1t,
You have made my day. 1)Helping me think outside the envelope, 2) I really like the xmas tree style the best.
Thank you so much for the time it took to draw up blueprints, and posting them for all to learn from.
Bless You ! Don

12/3/2004 9:06:57 PM

Joliet, IL

i would grow 7 plants total. i would probably split the
60' x 30' patch into 3 sections and grow the left and middle
section plants towards each other and then curve the mains
away from each other after reaching 20' and terminate them
when you wish as each intrudes a bit into the other's
patch. this would give 15' secondaries, and plenty of
time to get pollinations on the mains from 10' to 25'
on the mains if needed when trying to get a good set on
the main. the right planting section i would grow long ways
with 10' secondaries and 30' of length for your main.
this planting spot could be a little further in, like 5',
from the edge of this patch and still give you plenty of
room for a 25' main if needed when trying to set one on the
main if early attempts do not take.

or split into 20' wide by 30' long sections and alternate
planting spots to have the 2 outside plants growing
the same direction, and the middle spot growing
the opposite direction of the 2 outside plants.

example: the 1's below are dividing lines of each
20' wide by 30' long, and the apostrophes are the outside sections planting spot and the period is the inside patch planting spot. 1'1.1'1
this would give plenty of room to develope secondaries
for each plant ant still give good air flow to the entire
patch.

the 45 by 38 patch i would divide into 4, 19'x 22.5'
sections and grow 2 plants towards each other on each
side, curving the mains away from each other as they start
reaching the 19' mark. this would give all 4 plants here
11' secondaries with plenty of time to get a set from
the 10' to 20 something' long mains.

hope this makes some kind of sense. lol.
shazzy

12/4/2004 1:06:55 PM

Warwood

Thanks as well Shazzy. It makes sense as well and may be something to try. Don

12/4/2004 8:50:07 PM