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This is my first attempt at pumpkin growing, somebody told me that if I inject sugar water into the vine just before the stem that this will create a bigger fruit. Does anybody have any recomendations for what mixture to use and how often to inject?

8/4/2003 7:39:08 PM

Western Pa.

Don't do it.

8/4/2003 7:48:27 PM

KENTUCKY

here's something from an article from this web page :
http://www.statenews.com/editionsfall96/100796/ms_pumpkin.html

When Showers was just starting out, he heard a rumor that sugar water was the key to getting fat results, so he borrowed an IV bag from a neighboring nurse and created his own set-up to feed the pumpkins intravenously - or interstalkously.

The pumpkins weren't too impressed with the injections, but a colony of ants were, and ate big holes in the pumpkins.

That was 1976, though, and Showers has come a long way in his pumpkin expertise

good luck!

8/4/2003 9:09:12 PM

Utah

There is a childrens book that talks about mice wicking sugar water from a bowl into a pumpkin vine... the biggest pumpkin ever... bigger than their house... cute book but 100% fiction, except for the part where 100 mice on motorcycles tow the pumpkin into town for the weigh-off. :0

8/5/2003 9:29:00 AM

Cologne / Germany

so what about milk?;-)

8/5/2003 9:34:29 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll Ill. by Jeni Bassett

My son & I read that book til the pages were worn. It's a fun book. Glad this came up too. I just pulled all 25 Halloween books out & dusted them off. Quite a few focus on pumpkins too. This book is at least partly responsible for our interest in Dill's AGP's.

It's seems that both Clayton the house mouse & Desmond the field mouse both installed lamp wicking directly into the vine both of ahead & behind the fruit. The wicking was placed in glasses full of "sugar water".

A really fun experiment for a child. And a really dumb thing to do to a plant. But honestly. Anything that gets a child into the garden with his parents is better than watching the TV because someone burst his/her bubble. Try it & have fun. But don't set unrealistic expectations. And don't use a good one. Experiment on a cull instead.

The more time parents spend with their children in the garden dreaming, the better place the world becomes.

(copyrighted by me right here & now, but go ahead & quote me as often as you can - PLEASE)

Steve

8/5/2003 9:52:20 AM

Ypsilanti Michigan

If you make an atempt to make any holes in your vine, you will damage the veins in it that feed the pumpkin. Sugar, milk or what have you, throw the ideas aside and hear what the pro growers have to say. They been through alot and have learned alot. Some folks even segested to put a straw through the vine in a bowl of milk, milk is for cearal not pumpkins. But thats what the tap roots are for, leave the vines alone.

8/5/2003 4:12:20 PM

Western Pa.

Some growers dig a "pit" in which to grow their pumpkin plants. Why not just fill the pit with sugar, milk, and for good measure, 100# of Cheerios. (I know a lot of growers that will need "cheering up" in the months to come.) Fairy tale or not, I repeat: Don't do it!

8/5/2003 5:02:52 PM

Tipp City, Ohio

I bet Wheaties would beat Cheerios hands down. lol.

8/5/2003 9:10:26 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

animal fat products and vegetables don't mix

8/5/2003 9:13:04 PM

Ypsilanti Michigan

ha! ha! ha!

8/5/2003 10:07:54 PM

Oz

so to do this right ya need mice?

8/7/2003 11:40:09 PM