3 posts tagged “pumpkin”
Last year I tried to grow pumpkins. I tilled up rows and planted one hundred plants. I spent so much time out there that my wife nick named the pumpkin patch "The Precious", from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Unfortunately, I ended up with an infestation of leaf rollers that I couldn't get rid of no matter how hard I tried. Before it was over they had completely destroyed every leaf on every single plant. It was quite depressing.
This year, I decided to scale it down a little and try again. I 'm only planting twenty plants and I have them in a much more controlled area. Now if I can only keep the leaf rollers under control.
Well, I should have been getting ready to harvest pumpkins by now. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. A while back I posted about my desire to have a pumpkin patch. I spent so much time working out there that my wife nick named the plants "The Precious" .
By the time August rolled around I was seriously battling a caterpillar commonly known as leaf rollers. Try as I might, I just couldn't get rid of them. My son and I spent hours pulling them off the leaves and more than once I sprayed all of the plants with pesticide, but nothing seemed to help.
The final blow to "The Precious" came around the end of August when Tropical Storm Fay blew through. It rained for three days and I wasn't able to get out there to pull off the caterpillars. When the rain stopped and I finally got to go out there I couldn't believe my eyes. I had 100 plants and almost every leaf was completely gone! Those little buggers had themselves a feast. My son and I were both bummed out. We had been working with the pumpkins since June and had great hopes of selling a quite a few of them. I guess we'll have to try again next year.
I can't say why, but I have always wanted to grow pumpkins. I have never even seen pumpkins growing, or known anyone who as grown them, but I wanted to give it a try, so I read everything that I could find about it. Armed with my newfound knowledge, I started a small pumpkin patch around the middle of June.
My main concern was that the hot, summer sun would be too much for them, but as of today they are doing great. In fact, I already have some blooms. In my reading I found out that pumpkins have male and female blooms. The male blooms first, but doesn't produce the fruit. It's the female that blooms later and produces the pumpkin. Pretty weird, huh?
Another thing I read was that pumpkins don't have very many insect enemies. So far, that hasn't been altogether true. Three weeks ago I noticed some holes in a lot of the leaves, like something had been eating on them. I scoured the plants, but didn't find any bugs. The next day, there were more holes. I found myself crawling around on the ground inspecting the plants. Finally, I saw a small web on the top of one of the leaves. When I turned the leaf over I found a tiny caterpillar. Upon closer inspection, I found some of the leaves folded together. When I pulled the leaf apart, I found more webs and more caterpillars. It was at that point that I started pulling off caterpillars and squashing them. I pulled my youngest son out there with me to help me get rid of the caterpillars. He is partnering with me in the pumpkin patch and is looking forward to selling them in October.
It was kind of comical to watch him pull them off. He didn't want to touch them and he certainly didn't want to squash them. However, when I explained that they could kill the plants and thereby end our chance to make any money, he managed to overcome his fears.
Come to find out the caterpillars are called "Leaf Rollers". I have had a difficult time getting rid of them, spending many hours out in the pumpkin patch, spraying insecticide, pulling off caterpillars, checking and rechecking the plants, watering and weeding. It's all the time that I have spent out there that prompted the title of this post.
Not too long ago, we were watching "The Lord of the Rings" and Gollum was holding the ring, looking at it intently, as if it were the only thing on earth. If you have ever watched the movie, you know that he called the ring "Precious". Well, somehow my wife made a comparison between Gollum's behavior concerning the ring and mine about the pumpkin patch. So now, instead of a pumkin patch I have "The Precious".
Even my brother is in on it. Just two days ago, I was leaning over a pumpkin plant, scanning the leaves for the pesky caterpillars, when a Gollum like voice said, "The Precious." I looked up and my brother was leaning over the fence, laughing.
Oh well, I don't mind. If I have it figured right, by the time Halloween rolls around, I should have a couple thousand extra dollars in my pocket.
