It's starting small, a pumpkin plant gifted by my neighbor. Her father-in-law grows these professionally and enters them in contests. This is my first time so I have no such aspirations, plus how do you even transport such an item??? I planted mine near the place I'd like to display it to eliminate the need to transport it, just in case it grows!
Here are some of the pumpkins professionals grow:
While I don't expect to enter mine in any contests, I figure it could serve for lots of photo opportunities.
Or carving anyone? https://www.pinterest.com/kmankins/the-great-pumpkin/
At a minimum, we can make a TON of Rachel's muffins (recipe to follow).
Update:
I am learning so much about growing pumpkins. There are some serious big pumpkin growers out there. I started researching how to fertilize them and learned you DON'T use the same fertilizer when you are growing pumpkins as you do when you plant. At this point you don't want to promote green leaf growth but put the energy into the pumpkins. I also learned that some people actually HELP pollinate the plants. Check these sites if you want to hear details from some serious growers... http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ or https://www.giantpumpkinman.com/. I'm sure there are many more. In the meantime my plant continues to grow.
And grow...
I'm sure professional growers would be horrified that I am growing it in my flower bed, but I don't have a veggie garden near the front of the house, and wanted to grow it in a place where I could keep an eye on it and where we don't usually have gopher activity. It's been fun to watch it grow!
One of the tips I read (in addition to how to pollinate yourself!) is to watch for the first pollinated pumpkins after about 10 ft of vine. I had been seeing blossoms for awhile, but disappointingly none of them turned into pumpkins. They were probably all male blossoms, according to my reading. Without help, it seems my plant has been pollinated naturally. Check out the first (I think) female which is resulting in a tiny pumpkin. I am probably way behind, most pumpkins I am reading about are being measured already, but I'm excited to see something forming!
In the meantime, I see some yellowing of the leaves, so more research ahead...
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