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43.841677 , -79.086692

2010 will be my second year growing pumpkins but my Rookie year with proven seeds.
Since April I have been reasearching like mad and spending money like there is no tomorrow to prepare for 2010.

The one thing I am afraid will hold me back is the amount of shade I get. I have cut every tree on my property down but there is one large one on the neighbours property that starts to shade my patch @ 2pm.
A friend told me Joe Jutras also has shade on his patch but I am not sure if thats true.

I am worried that I will never be able to grow a monster.

Any advise or comments will be appreciated

12/17/2009 4:17:25 PM

Coventry R.I.

That,s not true,, I live near Joe,,, I,m R.I. I have the same problem with shade,, You need sun from 8-5 better is 8-7pm,,, SUN IS VERY IMPORTANT.

12/17/2009 5:53:24 PM

Brooklyn Corner, Nova Scotia

Chris- you will be a player. I had a similar problem with mine, shade til 11:00 and full sun til 4-4:30. I posed the question to an experienced and seasoned grower who felt 5 hours of mid day sun is better that what you would get early or late in the day although 10 hours is certainly better. Does the shade continue from 2:00 for the rest of the day?

12/17/2009 6:01:46 PM

Brooklyn Corner, Nova Scotia

As long as you don't get a hurricane and a tropical storm in the same week you will be fine!!!

12/17/2009 6:02:40 PM

Frankfort Ohio

if your neighbours leave for vacation cut the tree down then tell them a storm blew it over and you are helping clean things up lol

12/17/2009 6:18:12 PM

copper nails

12/17/2009 6:36:08 PM

Alex, IN

I grew my 775.5 this year in a spot that gets shade from 2 p.m. on. Before the weather turned really hot the pumpkin was above the 1200 pound benchmarks. So yes you can grow a big one with some shade.

12/17/2009 7:36:40 PM

43.841677 , -79.086692

Sun pretty much hits the patch @ dawn and @ 2pm shade hits the edge of the patch and then works its way across.
By 430-5 the patch is completely shaded. Then I get a couple more hours of evening sun.

I am having a tree guy come in and trim everything off the neighbours tree that hangs over my property line. The neighbour is cool with that.
It is a big silver maple. 40" trunk x 40' and a huge canopy. Copper nails would work if I put a million in and waited 20 years. Haha

12/17/2009 8:52:45 PM

Western NY

you should be ok chris, the trimming will help. visit some other patches over the summer, you'll get a better idea on the range of sun most growers get.

12/17/2009 9:08:05 PM

43.841677 , -79.086692

Just out of interest, I only aquired real, not store purchased AG seeds until mid july this year. I planted some in the area which is now my prime spot late July. Just native soil, not a single ammendment. Both plants reached 400 sq' in a month. Way too late for any pollination of substance but it gave me an idea of if the plants would thrive there.

12/17/2009 9:17:48 PM

nOVA sCOTIA

Hey Chris. Don't cut the neighbours tree down.lol. If you check out my 08 diary you will notice that we recieved terential rain throughout the entire growing season. We had very little sun and the 1287 Vankooten seed grew me an 1144. This year we had very little precip and a whole lot of sun. The largest pumpkin grown on cape breton island this year was 1110lbs.Figure that one out.Carl

12/17/2009 9:21:55 PM

Midway, UT

LongmontPete grew the 2nd biggest pumpkin ever grown in Colorado this year and his house is right up against his plant on the west side. From 1:00 on his plant gets no direct sun light. He also grew his pumpkin on less than 300 sq feet. I'm sure he would have done even better with more sun and more square feet but it is amazing what these plants can do even with a little less sun.

12/18/2009 12:49:24 AM

Minnesota([email protected])

Is there any scientific data that demonstrates that more sun equals a larger pumpkin? Could there be an optimum amount of sunlight.....for example 4 hours direct sun....any less and you get less pumpkin growth, any more and it makes no difference. Is there a limit to the amount of daily energy from the sun these plants can use for photosynthesis?

12/18/2009 12:59:22 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

Doug, imho...LOL...prbly no scientific data...but we all know about the Golden Zone!!! Almost all of the WR's...(maybe all) were grown near the US/Canadian border!!! (Of course this Golden Zone goes all the way around the globe, I would think!!) That area (is it latitude) has the proper combination of warmness, w/o being too hot!!! And, the extended daylight hours (equals sunlight hours) during peak growth season!! Does that make it scientific data? Not sure?? Throughout the years, folks in diff climates, have figured out how to compensate...but nothing is better than growing in that Golden Zone!!! Peace, Wayne

12/18/2009 1:10:45 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

PS...when I first joined this site...someone said "you can't grow a pkn over 1K#'s, that far south!!!! True...now they are doing 1.2K plus in Georgia!!!! Lot's of new stuff has allowed lots more into this incredible sport/hobby/game!!! Merry Christmas to all...and Grow em BIG!!! Peace, Wayne

12/18/2009 1:14:48 AM

43.841677 , -79.086692

Thanks guys. I guess only time will tell....

Nice to see an ex Scarbarian here in Jamie.. FYI Jamies blog was one of the first info sources I found on the net and ultimately played a role in sucking me into the Vortex.

Cheers

12/18/2009 10:33:19 AM

Pocatello ([email protected])

I believe that shade is not the same as darkness, and the plant will photosynthesize just fine in shade. Plants will photosynthesize at night during a full moon.

My patch is in full sun from dawn to dusk. (That doesn't make me a player, necessarily, lol...) But sometimes I'll have a leaf that gets under some portable wind fencing that I move around. I notice that those leaves that sit in the shade get MUCH BIGGER than the other leaves on the same plant.

At times I wish I had a little mid-day shade. It would cool the plant and preserve moisture in the soil.

12/18/2009 11:18:19 AM

Pocatello ([email protected])

If I could follow up on my own post (sorry, I do that way too often) I think that my leaves stay small because they do get lots of sun here. The plant doesn't need so much sun. In a normal year, we might have less than 5 cloudy days between May and September, and we have full, crystal clear high-mountain sun here. My patch gets so much sun... but that doesn't translate into a magic bullet. There are other things that hold me back.

12/18/2009 11:34:37 AM

Long Island,New York

I look at it this way: Sunshine is like money. If you have none, it sucks and you cannot do anything. If you have small amount you can do things and have fun but you'll always be less than the guys who have big money. If you have alot of money you can do whatever you want as it relates to the money-end of things....but it cant buy you everything. And finally.....if you have 200 million dollars is it really not as good as 220 million dollars? I mean, theres a limit to the needs...what can I get with 220 million that I cannot get with 200 million......I think these plants do better with 10 hrs of sun than 2 but not much better with 20.....?....(as usual, it all comes down to money references...lol)

12/18/2009 12:50:32 PM

43.841677 , -79.086692

Talking about money. This is a $1500 tree. Thats what the arborist I use would charge me to cut down and remove.
I will see how this year goes and if I fail miserably I will beg the owner to let me cut it down @ my expense.

12/18/2009 1:54:22 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

And then theres the guys who are covering the plants with sun shades??? I'd rather have all day sun but when a well water plant is drooping in the noon sun...that's a sad sight...You can only control the things that are under your control...soil, fertilizer, bugs....oh yeah and varmits. If you can get these under control You've done good!!!! GrowEmBig!

12/18/2009 2:27:03 PM

Ohio

Chris sneak in there at night and take your cordless drill , drill all the way around the bottom of the trunk and then fill the holes with weed killer.

It will work, lol, no leaves for you to worry about shading your plant this summer and your neighbor will be stuck there thinking he was hit with dutch elm disease,,lol.

12/18/2009 4:54:40 PM

Ohio

I thought I heard that also that Joe Jutras 1689 pumpkin he grew was shaded half of the day.

Maybe Pap would know if thats true or not. but I did hear that and was thinking that Joe told that story at Niagara one year.

12/18/2009 4:57:46 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

My patch is at the bottom of a deep valley with trees near the top. I miss the early and late direct sun. I managed a best of 841# in 2008, the wettest year on record on a creek bottom soil. This year I had some pumpkins growing well beyond the 1200# benchmark when the rains hit and I eventually got flooded out. I sometimes try to let the plants get a little bigger than some growers just to have more leaf area to abosorb the sun that I do get.

12/18/2009 8:49:35 PM