Thagirion
Budgies are best
I have always loved pumpkins since I was a little kid. I became an official cucurbit fan in 2005 after seeing long handled dipper gourds growing at Epcot's The Land. When I found out these could be turned into birdhouses and other things because of the hardshells the genus Lagenaria (the hard shelled gourds) became one of my favorite plants. But unfortunately as far as pumpkins go I found out the hard way that unless you have a climate controlled greenhouse they do not grow in Florida and are near impossible to grow. This is why we have all our Halloween pumpkins imported in from other states. Imagine my surprise when I found that up north pumpkin patches are just that real patches where you go pick your pumpkins. Not tent stands like we have here. Regardless I was detrmined and I've been trying and failing since 2005 to grow them. The biggest eneimeis being powder mildew, heat, humidity and melon worms. But I finally did it. Last year I finally succeeded in growing pumpkins. I'll post some of my success pics from 2011 in this thread.
This is a Martin House Gourd. A very large gourd for making into Purple Martin homes. Remember I'm also avian obsessed.
I finally built an arbor for gourds along the back fence last year. These are some Opos hanging down. I love the shapes of gourds haning like this. Opo is a Chinese variety.
If Epcot can do it then so can I. And I did. This is a giant Zucca gourd. They had bunche of these growing there on an arbor like this. I managed to grow three of these giants with this one being the biggest one. It was 30 inches.
The start of my pumpkin patch. I tilled all that with just my foot and a shovel. The little flags are where I planted four seeds each of different types.
Lastly, female flower of an extra long luffa. These can grow up to three feet in length. You can tell the flower is longer than normal. I'm going to stop here in case no one is interested and I don't post too many pics for nothing.
This year my focus will be on tropics but I do hope to grow some cucurbits again.
This is a Martin House Gourd. A very large gourd for making into Purple Martin homes. Remember I'm also avian obsessed.
I finally built an arbor for gourds along the back fence last year. These are some Opos hanging down. I love the shapes of gourds haning like this. Opo is a Chinese variety.
If Epcot can do it then so can I. And I did. This is a giant Zucca gourd. They had bunche of these growing there on an arbor like this. I managed to grow three of these giants with this one being the biggest one. It was 30 inches.
The start of my pumpkin patch. I tilled all that with just my foot and a shovel. The little flags are where I planted four seeds each of different types.
Lastly, female flower of an extra long luffa. These can grow up to three feet in length. You can tell the flower is longer than normal. I'm going to stop here in case no one is interested and I don't post too many pics for nothing.
This year my focus will be on tropics but I do hope to grow some cucurbits again.