I broke my Sugar Pumpkin plant!

Blackrose on 5/7/2010, 11:23 am

I was bringing my sugar pumpkin seedling back inside today after having it outside for a couple of hours to harden it off and I broke the main stalk. Is there any way to save it? Or am I going to have a really late harvest?

Blackrose on 5/7/2010, 7:33 pm

In an effort to try and save my poor little sugar pumpkin seedling, this is what I did:

Anybody know if this has a chance of saving the plant?

camprn on 5/7/2010, 7:35 pm

Oh dear, that's so sad it broke in half. Have you no more seeds?

Mirjam on 5/8/2010, 2:00 am

I always start my pumpkins and wintersquashes inside because I'm just impatient to GROW stuff, but I found that the plants I planted as seedlings never got far ahead of the plants I planted as seeds. The biggest difference is that when you plant them as plants, they have more chance to survive slugs, as their stems are bigger and they have more leaves. When you put in seeds, a passing slug can eat the whole sprout in two bites. But if you cover 'em with a cloche or something, they'll be fine.

Megan on 5/8/2010, 2:44 am

Oh no, Blackrose! So sorry to hear about that. I don't know if that will work or not, but it looks like a good idea, and the plant isn't completely limp. Did you use rooting solution on the broken stem?

Blackrose on 5/8/2010, 5:50 am

Thank you all for the replies. I'm a totally novice gardener, so I was not sure what to do.

Camprn and Mirjam: I have more seeds, but I thought it would take too long to start over, that's why I was trying to save my seedling. Would I still have a chance of getting a decent harvest if I plant seeds directly in the SFG now?

Megan: No. I have never even heard of rooting solution. Is it required? Or does it just help?

Blackrose on 5/8/2010, 5:53 am

Forgot to mention Mirjam that I have a tabletop SFG. What are the chances that slugs would climb up the legs to get into my garden? I'm not sure how far they would go to eat my plants.

This picture was taken before planting, but I wanted to give you an idea of what my SFG looks like.

Megan on 5/8/2010, 5:58 am

Blackrose,

I have never used rooting solution (if that is even the right name for it), I just know it exists. I don't know if it works for vegetables as well as flowers, either... sorry friend!

Mirjam on 5/8/2010, 8:29 am

I guess tabletops might reduce te number of slugs and snails by about 95 percent Smile

(some of them are really persistent) In that case, I'd say just sow the seeds and you'll see you won't have a much later harvest than planned.

camprn on 5/8/2010, 8:45 am

Black, Go ahead and start a few more seeds, you have time. You and I are in the same zone and I plan on direct seeding my pie pumpkins.
If I may offer a suggestion, you may want to reconsider putting that sugar pie pumpkin into the table top garden. It may do better in a bucket with vines trained to your fence, if at all possible. This is what they look like when they are big enough to start putting out fruit. Here is the blog site that the photo came from.

Blackrose on 5/8/2010, 10:02 am

Wow camprn! I had no idea it would get THAT big. I was going to put in the middle back square of my SFG with eggplant on one side and bush beans on the other. It looks like it may overtake those other 2 squares. I have a fence I can plant it up against and a couple of extra urns that I was trying to figure out what to do with. Maybe I'll plant the pumpkin in one of those and put it up against my fence. What kind of a yield would I get out of one plant I wonder?

The next question is, what can I plant in that empty square now?

camprn on 5/8/2010, 11:38 am

hmmm... Basil? Pot Marigold (calendula)?

Megan on 5/8/2010, 12:15 pm

Marigolds or radishes?

Blackrose on 5/8/2010, 12:32 pm

Thanks for the suggestions! I have a separate herb garden already and I don't like radishes. What do you do with marigolds? Are they there to look pretty, keeps bugs away or both?

I may just go to the garden centre and see if something jumps out at me screaming "take me home"!

Megan on 5/8/2010, 12:54 pm

I am ambivalent about radishes (sometimes I eat them, sometimes I don't.... though I am curious whether home-grown might taste better) so I am using them as a companion plant.

Marigolds -- both. I am trying to start some heirloom marigolds from seed but the germination rate is horrible.

I broke my Sugar Pumpkin plant!

I broke my Sugar Pumpkin plant!

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