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Okla

I want to see if anyone will post in response to a few questions I have to ask. The first on this subject is, were there any giant pumpkins, say 1100 lbs or bigger, that had shade cloth over the plant itself, partially or entirely? Just trying to figure out a better way to grow down here in the southern part to be able to get huge pumpkins, so all info will help out greatly.

10/31/2008 2:05:58 AM

Rhode Island

if your growing in a climate thats constantly in the ninties and up then you very well may need a thin shading material over the plant at various times during the season.
dont know of any 1,100 and over pumpkins grown in the shade,

i would prefer not to shade the plant unless i really had to because the sun is one of our BIG THREE NEEDS for any gardening crops success
.
shade the fruit with a sheet or plastic overhead covering? yes
shade the plant? only in cases of extreem prolonged high heat would be my suggestion.

does it really get that hot for prolonged periods in ok?

pap

10/31/2008 7:42:50 AM

Commack, NY

I grew my 1030 in 2003 and my 1249 in 2007 with the entire plant under 30% shade cloth. I know others that have gone over 1000 lbs under shade cloth. it can, and has been done. Plus it doubles as hail protection, but you need a good support system under the cloth for it to work properly. We had hail a bunch of times this year and the plant was never affected. On the negative side, i seem to get powdery mildew earlier than pretty much everyone else. Cost is a factor if your patch is large. if i had to do it again, i would go much lighter than 30%, say maybe half that. Not sure what your conditions are like in oklahoma. i do have a few pieces of 12x12 that im not using anymore if you're interested in trying.

10/31/2008 8:20:08 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Altitude (over 4000 feet) you may need some shade cloth, or a cooperative tree for mid to late afternoon shade (a few hours) as the UV is more intense and fries everything along with the heat.

Hail, I built a windbreak fence, and put wire runner lines over the plants that I could haul one big nasty tarp over if we had Weather Channel hail warnings. It took me less than 20 min to put up three big huge blue tarps. Hail season ended here before the vines were over a few hundred square feet AND before fruit set. A few pats of light hail after, the pumpkin shelters took care of the fruit and the few holes I got didn't hurt anything.

Most of Oklahoma is in the 'flat' (under 1000 F elevation)and zone 8, and it can be very hot for very long. Misters ae a must. The SE corner of the state has an elevation of like 30 feet, so they're in maybe zone 9... and have more humidity so keeping things dry and Powdery Mildew may be the problem.

[Pap, here we had it hit 106 on June 2nd and we got no real relief to speak of until late August, it was brutal this year]

Good luck Thomas, but *I* am taking that state record in '09 :) Deb Aka Okiegal out here in the end of the Panhandle...(zone 6a, 4157F elevation)

10/31/2008 9:29:33 AM

Utah

I have grown completely under shade cloth (66%) since 2004 in my patch 22 ft x 100 ft. I had an 1054.5 and 1170.5 dmg this year, in the past 963, 932, 920, 906, 891, 878, 835, and more smaller than that.
I'm at 4,200 ft elevation. I do think that my shade cloth % is more than I need. one of these years I'll buy something with a lower percentage. but I don't know what my optimal would be. I'm guessing somewhere in the range of 30% to 50%. I think that would be what you would be looking for also.
You can find pictures of my set up in my diary. I'm sure it is not the best design but it works does work.
If I had to do it all over again I would figure out a way to open and close the shade cloth easily. That way I could "close" the patch during the hot part of the day during the summer, every night to help keep in the heat and during storms to keep out the wind and hail.
Many green houses that are fulling enclosed have shade cloth to help keep them from getting to hot. I've also thought about trying to add a layer of plastic. that could open and close also to make a hot house for the early spring and fall times.
what?! !? Pap doens't know everything? LOL (sorry I couldn't resist)

10/31/2008 12:51:10 PM

Ohio

Scott,do they make a shade cloth less then 30%? If so where would you get it? lowest I have seen is 30%.

10/31/2008 1:05:44 PM

Midwest

Mine was under nylon net for one year. How do they measure the % shade?

10/31/2008 2:08:11 PM

Midway, UT

They do make hail netting with a 10% block. I believe the Wiz is using this netting. The price isn't cheap but not horrible. http://www.hydro-gardens.com/GSHFlooringhtm.htm#Hail%20Guard

10/31/2008 3:10:03 PM

Okla

Pap, it gets very very hot here for several weeks and starts around pollination time here. Hard to get a good set on a fruit around the time everyone else starts. We really need to start pollinating earlier here.
Here is some reasons I am asking about shade cloth over the plants. I have grown under shade and have probably one of the better frames systems to put the cloth on. What I have noticed is any time you put any shade over the plant, even the lightest percentage you can, then the plants is not getting all the sun it needs and will go into a plant growth mode when it should be putting most of that energy into growing the fruit, so that in turn takes away from you getting the bigger fruits. The plants I have grown under shade are very very green but the leaves all get very very huge and that in turn makes them easier to breakage. I have discussed this in the past with Beachy and about the best we can figure is if you want the growth energy to go into the fruit and not the plant in a battle for sunshine then some other way needs to be figured to be able to get to the bigger fruits. Any other thoughtsm ANYONE???

10/31/2008 4:05:55 PM

Long Island,New York

Dont underestimate the benefits of shade cloth....it makes a wonderful wind protection also (from the top).

10/31/2008 4:19:46 PM

Kentucky

A couple of us in KY used 30% shade cloth this year. I grew the 1038.5 Brinkley and Frank Mudd grew a 1114 and both pumpkins had the entire plant shaded. Growing under the shade basically eliminated the leaf burn and wilting problems that I have had. After all my vines were terminated and the leaves were mature I did remove the shade on most days. Late in the season I only covered the plants on extremely hot days or when there was a threat of bad weather. I think with the extreme heat and intensity of the sun in the South that the shade cloth can be a big asset.

Brooks, when I was looking for the shade cloth I found some as low as 20%.

Bill

10/31/2008 9:49:00 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Thomas, during our brutal summer here, I found that shading the desired future fruit 3-4 days before bagging and fertilizing, and keeping it shaded for a week after (lawn chair) really helped the set. More than even using ice. I also got up at crack of dawn to pollenate, and instead of using one male I use 3-4 (all bagged of course) to get enough pollen.

I was the only one here to keep a July set (4th of July roughly), the only other one we got to set in another patch aborted in a few weeks. (I think they uncovered it too soon)

I tried one ice and cooler set and it didn't take.

Figure out when your high noon local is (not by clock but by sun) and concentrate on providing shade and/or cooling via misters or watering from 30 min before that to about two hours later. Here we should be in next time zone so during summer the hot time starts about 1:30 pm, and if I took care of it to 3:30 to 4:30 (over 100F I extended it) it seemed to do fine.

11/1/2008 12:05:24 PM