Atlantic giant pumpkin seeds

So tonight I clipped the end of all the vines on the left side of the plant, dig a small hole , buried them and dumped a pile of clippings on top. This will stop the vine from growing so it can focus its energy on the pumpkin. I have also been clipping the immature male flowers off. I hope to get the rest of the vine ends clipped a buried tomorrow.

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There are little pumpkins all over the vine, I removed ten or so tonight, the size of my thumb or smaller.

Here is a photo of the base of the vine , really getting big.

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“Feed me, Seymour!”

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Several people have asked about how many pumpkins the vine makes and if I have removed the other competing pumpkins. Here is a batch of baby Atlantic giants that didn’t make the cut.

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Tonight I finished burying the vine ends. All of the extra pumpkins have been removed. I gave the base and main vine a dose of liquid fertilizer. All of the vine growth has stopped now. 29 feet wide and 16 feet long. We are supposed to get some rain tonight and tomorrow. I put up some shade cloth to keep the sun off the pumpkin. You want the skin of the pumpkin to stay soft. It may also help if we get any hail. The next ten days I should see some dramatic growth in the pumpkin.

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I bet deer would kill to get at those big green leaves…Don’t you have any deer pressure, or maybe you just have some tall fencing?

BTW, is that a peach tree behind the vine?

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I have very little deer pressure, knock on wood, there was a little spike buck here last summer that ate my Fuji pretty badly but I would say someone ate him at deer season.

Yes that is my old peach tree, got a few nice peaches off of it this year.

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My first pumpkin weighs in at 2 lbs so far. It has a rather asymmetrical shape.
At this time the Hubbard squash is far ahead of it in terms of age, vine size and weight.
I wonder which one will end up larger at the end of the season?

Pictures of young Hubbard squash below.

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Here it is this morning, amazing how fast they grow

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Holly crap, it is amazing! I am having fun watching it grow.

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I am going to try and not post a photo for a few days and you should be able to really tell a difference. At each leaf node the plant grows a root. I did have to sever the root at the leaf node a foot back up the main stem to give the vine more slack to accommodate for the stem on the pumpkin being higher from the ground. I used some mulch to help support the vine , I will have to watch it closely and try to keep it supported

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Your going to have to put a beach ball next to it soon! Your grandson must be surprised every time he gets to see it.

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Derby42,
Great thread on growing these monsters! You know all the tricks. What do you water it with and how much? How much extra fertilizers/ minerals/ manures are you using? I’m impressed! I know most people don’t eat these but do you toast the seeds? Ever tried to make a pie from them? Some of these people that grow these use fish emulsions others use manure teas etc… Want to make sure we learn all the tricks! Hope it’s a 400 + pounder! It’s got the makings of a big one! We’d love to see you grow a world record pumpkin before our eyes! The new records are crazy Don Langevin's GiantPumpkin.com

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I haven’t had to water it yet , got more rain yesterday. I have used only liquid miracle grow so far but that is really just to help the plant size up. I try to use lots of rotten hay and manure, green yard clippings and now as the pumpkin starts to grow , maybe some wood ash and water, a little Epsom salts, and more diluted miracle grow sprayed on the leaves .

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I never tried to make pie, the one in my avitar had some pesticides that I used that were only approved for ornamental flowers so I made it into a really big jack-o-lantern.

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The measurements say that we have just passed the 100 lbs milestone. We were in Branson for a couple of days and increasing size was very noticeable.

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Must have tripled in size since the last photo!

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Incredible!

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It is really amazing to check it in the morning and by the end of the day it visibly has grown. We got more rain today and the temperature stayed cooler so the pumpkin should like that. I probably need to dose it with some kind of fertilizer…

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