hey from the ABC tech talk forum,

On invitation from veg gardener I’m cross-posting this from the tt board.

“Now, can I get a gardening hint please?

Which pumpkin would be best to experiment with in a modified neutral media hydroponic system?
I’m prepared to use either flood-and-drain or timed measured drain-to-waste, not a recirculating root-bath tank.
The aim is to be able to mature a family-sized amount of stuff through a water-restricted drought season.
We would prefer Blueys, but Japanese would be a fair substitute if they respond better to this kind of coddling.

thanks in advance.”

Well, I have just picked a “family-sized” harvest from one minnikin plant…it was related to the triffids tho…naturally water-restricted here ..we watered only once a week…pumpkins don’t have a very big root system that I know of…downright tiny when one considers all the space occupied by the vines…

I think first you will need to decide if you want to grow a vine or bush variety.
Traditional vines take up a lot of room although they can be trained to grow up a support. I suspect a bush variety would be better due to the more compact growth. They grow smaller pumpkins but potentially a longer harvest.

Thanks for the responses there :-)

Space not a problem – - I’ve got a fenced-off yard out back of a farm shed to play in.
Problem is the decision about when to cut off nutrients (and reduce water) at the main root ball, to mimic what occurs in a soil-grown situation.
What happens with hydroponics is that the growth is generally too smooth to induce good sweet flesh.
I want to try to achieve a good result and I guess I’m kinda fishing for someone who’s tried soil-less and can set me on a good variety for this.
I can get everything else we eat going real good, but these dry sweet-flesh fruit are a conundrum.

anyway, I’ll drop by the next couple days to check the thread.
thanks again food people :-)

I could be wrong, but from what I’ve seen of pumpkins growing (which isn’t much), sometimes if the runner is on the ground and it hits a nice moist patch, it will send down roots there also.

Isn’t PainMaster our resident pummikin expert???

On the other hand, I have watched (in morbid fascination I might add) where, in the Good Ol’ USofA, they have giant pumpkin contest (pumpkins judged by weight…these little beauties go to the contest by truck – one per truck – and are lifted onto the scales by crane – but I digress. Some of the pumpkin growers in these contests have milk flowing into the vine by intravenous (if pumpkins have veins??? don’t think so) drips, it’s supposed to make for a more solid result…

personally I think what you want to do is mimic conditions they would get in the ground as closely as possible. You start the plant off in spring when the weather starts warming up. Warmth, nutrient and water make for good growth. Summer means less water and as a result less nutrient and leaf condition will be sacrificed in favour of fruit growth and development. As the weather cools down in Autumn the plant is winding back as the fruit matures. Nutrient needs would be pretty low at this stage.

xp202 said:

On invitation from veg gardener I’m cross-posting this from the tt board.

yeps that try i did invite u to this gardening forums.

xp202 said:

Space not a problem – - I’ve got a fenced-off yard out back of a farm shed to play in.

what I am trying to figure out, is if you have the land and space, why do you want to grow them with hydroponics?

BlueGreen, I think he wants to control the water to obtain nice fleshy fruit…am I right in thinking too much or too little water affects the quality of the pumpkin fruit?

pumpkins and their kin like a lot of nutrients…so much so that they will grow very happily in a compost pile, sucking up all the nutrients.
there’s no real need to withhold nutrients or water to improve maturation or flavor. some people wait till the pumpkin vines have all but shriveled up before harvesting, as it’s supposed to produce longer keeping pumpkins. i generally haven’t found a need to do this…often harvesting pumpkins as soon as mature (color) and successfully storing for several months without problems, in a dry environment of course to prevent rot.

hey bluegreen,
bluegreen said:

what I am trying to figure out, is if you have the land and space, why do you want to grow them with hydroponics?

Soil unsuitability, water and input conservation, in short.

The milk treatment is a teaser, interesting whether its fungicidal properties are being exploited there to extend the life of the plant.

So, nobody with soil-less growing experience of a particular variety around then?
Ah well, I like experimenting anyway.

Agreed that there’s no need to leave fruit to mature on dying vine. I think that idea comes from more temperate Northern climes, where it was likely less humid out on the late summer paddock than in the storage cellars. Here they just sunburn and rot from those burnt spots if left out that long.
In the New Mexico desert they store pumpkin and corn on their flat roofs. More to stop coyotes than fungus I think :-)

I’m going to play again this season with a more concentrated growing burst – - lotsa lotsa nutrients all at the beginning (like maybe happens on a compost pile). We’ll mabey see how much those wonder vines can take before they burn!! It’s fun playing around.
Thanks for the contributions and seeya in the shed :-)

You could try Aussies Living Simply. They have an Aquaponics section where someone may be able to advise you. You’ll need to register.

http://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au/news.php

I don’t see why you couldn’t grow them hydroponically, their roots are disproportionate to their foliage mass…what we did last summer was water / soak once a week rather than hand water every day…This worked very well (Sonny Jim would leave the sprinkler on all day) but next summer I hope to set up a drip water system, water once a week but drip-water overnight…next summer I’ll have the three sisters system all worked out too…

good evening all…I might not be here long…added some whiskey to the Bailey’s (for the taste) toppped up with some milk…

whoops wrong thread

aquarium said:

pumpkins and their kin like a lot of nutrients…so much so that they will grow very happily in a compost pile, sucking up all the nutrients.
there’s no real need to withhold nutrients or water to improve maturation or flavor.

oh dear – i just said the opposite on the GA forum – ie pumpkins make something out of average soil and low water. well at least your experiment will prove something xp202.
personally i would attempt to force feed something else – lettuce, pak choy or brassicas.
good luck and we await your results.

pepe said:

aquarium said:

pumpkins and their kin like a lot of nutrients…so much so that they will grow very happily in a compost pile, sucking up all the nutrients.
there’s no real need to withhold nutrients or water to improve maturation or flavor.

oh dear – i just said the opposite on the GA forum – ie pumpkins make something out of average soil and low water. well at least your experiment will prove something xp202.
personally i would attempt to force feed something else – lettuce, pak choy or brassicas.
good luck and we await your results.

oh and BTW the reason pumpkin always show up in compost heaps is the virility of their seeds
(ps – i’m not trying to be controversial – i just can’t help it LOL)

I say PM, while you’re there…I have just used 2 of my minnikins in that pumpkin soup because their stems had snapped off and they were going soft in that spot…they were also a bit “sappy” and I think I cut them from a still-green but dying off vine…there appears to be two schools of thought re picking pumkins…one is pick when ripe (how do I know that?) and the other is my preferred method: wait for the vine to die or the frost to kill the vine off…is there a finer point to picking pumpkins that I need to know???

Dinetta said:

I say PM, while you’re there…I have just used 2 of my minnikins in that pumpkin soup because their stems had snapped off and they were going soft in that spot…they were also a bit “sappy” and I think I cut them from a still-green but dying off vine…there appears to be two schools of thought re picking pumkins…one is pick when ripe (how do I know that?) and the other is my preferred method: wait for the vine to die or the frost to kill the vine off…is there a finer point to picking pumpkins that I need to know???

I’m pretty sure, if you are going to use the pumikin straight away, then it doesn’t matter what the stem is or isn’t doing… I think it is a little more important if you plan on storing the pumikin for the winter. Then, you may need to wait until the stem is drying off, in order for the fruit to last a whole season. In the past I have used the pumikins as I have needed as I never have really had a glut, and I would have given away the rest to family and friends.

However, the great pumikin of ’04 which bore 27 babies had to be stored, and I did have one or two go off, but the rest survived our consumption… and I am pretty sure the two that went off were picked a little prematurely… mind you we consumed them from youngest looking to oldest, which maximised our results

one is pick when ripe (how do I know that?)
—- it changes to a darker colour – particularly noticeable on the blue and japs.

Thanks for that, PM and Pepe…mine are the orange colours…they go orange very quickly…look like yellowed no-good fruit to start off with, but quickly go to orange and then just keep growing, according to either whatever they have thrown back to or how much water they received at a critical time…I used seeds from a pumpkin purchased at Woolworths…mind you none of the fruit are as small as the original…I have quite a range of sizes so that’s not really a guide…

Thank heavens I can grow something to harvest point…my father had a lovely vegetable garden…about 8 beds 1m wide by about 3-4 metres along…all raised hardwood and infilled with good loam…then he discovered Thrive one year and even the chooks got sick of cucumber…my privilege was to water the beds of an afternoon…wages was to nibble fresh young carrots, beans and peas but not strawberries…ok one or two…as I persevere with my bed I often wonder how Dad made it look so easy…