It was a scrawny little
plant, the only one left in it's section at the Walmart garden
center. On a whim I picked it up and put it in the basket with
Carol's selection of flowers. “What's that?” she asked.
“I thought I'd try
growing a Pumpkin plant, it's only a couple of dollars!”
“It looks pretty sad,”
she said, shaking her head, “Where are you going to plant it?”
“Maybe I'll try
planting it in the greenhouse.”
“I don't think you can
grow them in a greenhouse.”
“Well, I'm gonna try!”
When we got home I
planted the wilted, sagging, little thing on the right side of the
greenhouse where there was a lot of growing room. I gave it a good
drink of water and sprinkled some diatomaceous earth around it to
keep the slugs, snails and sow bugs off.
The next day it looked a
little better, but I still had my doubts about it surviving. I
carefully tied its two drooping leaves up to a small stick and gave
it some more water. A few days later a small vine started creeping
out of the stem and the leaves were strong enough to stand without
support.
Several weeks later it
was thriving, and there was a bright yellow flower blooming among the
large leaves. I went to the computer and did some research on Pumpkin
growing, where I found out that as usual, Carol was right; Pumpkins
don't do well in a greenhouse. For one thing, they need lots of room,
and even though I'd given it one whole side of our greenhouse, about
12 feet, the vines sometimes grow to over 20 feet. For another, the
flowers are male and female, only last for one day, and they need
Bees to pollinate them.
I found a website that
showed how to hand pollinate the flowers and decided to try it. After
all, if a Bee can do it by accident I should be able to do it on
purpose. I learned how to tell a male flower from a female, (The
female has a swelling at it's base which is the start of a Pumpkin,
if the flower gets pollinated.)
Three or four male
flowers bloomed and died before a female opened it's yellow petals,
but by then there were no males left blooming, to furnish pollen.
Pumpkin sex is difficult! Maybe I should have paid more attention
when dad gave me the Birds and the Bees talk.
I fertilized, and
watered, and waited for a female and male flower to bloom on the same
day and finally, Ta Daa! It happened! I nervously, gently used a
q-tip to transfer pollen from the male flower to the female, and
began waiting for a Pumpkin to appear
Two days later the
swelling at the base of the now shriveled flower turned yellow and
fell off. The vines and leaves had grown to the length of the
greenhouse, turned the corner and were threatening world domination,
but despite my best Bee impersonations, no Pumpkins.
I went to Google for
advice on pruning Pumpkin plants, and pruned the vines back to a more
manageable size. By then I was getting frustrated, and when a male
and female blossom appeared one day, instead of a gentle courtship, I
plucked the male flower, tore off the petals and jammed the stamen
into the female flower. (I feel guilty even writing about it!)
Lo and behold, a few days
later the swelling below the wilted flower began to grow! Maybe
Pumpkins like rough sex, I thought.
The rapidly growing
Pumpkin was at the far end of the greenhouse right on top of our
compost bin. I slid some boards under it for support and kept up a
steady supply of water and fertilizer. The pumpkin kept growing.
One day while I was
watering the ever thirsty plant I noticed the little plastic tag that
came in the original pot. Since I had never read it, I was surprised
to see that from its humble beginning my little plant was going to
become a “Bonnie Mega Pumpkin!” Oh-oh!
I began to have visions
of a giant Pumpkin outgrowing our greenhouse, forcing me to either
tear out the end of the greenhouse or saw the Pumpkin up with a
chainsaw to get it out.
The Bonnie plants website
calmed my worries, when I read that a Mega Pumpkin wasn't in
the same league as a Giant Pumpkin. I wanted it to get big
though, because I love Pumpkin Pies!
I proudly showed Carol my
great green thumb accomplishment (for about the twentieth time) and
she promptly took the wind out of my sails when she said, “It looks
more like a Watermelon than a Pumpkin!” To my dismay, I realized
that she was right, it was green with dark green stripes and yellow
speckles. It didn't look anything like a pumpkin!
I began to wonder; could
Bonnie have made a mistake and swapped seeds? I'm not real fond of
Watermelon anyway, and Watermelon pies for Thanksgiving? Yuk!
To be continued....
