A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 White Pumpkins

Has anyone grown white pumpkins? Do their leaves change colors? I have several "volunteer" white pumpkins that sprouted in my garden from a white pumpkin we tossed out there this winter. I transplanted around 15 of them to various places. They are all doing significantly better than the ones I planted from seeds. But, the one that is doing the VERY best has got what looks to be that 'powdery mildew' on it. Now, this stuff isn't powdery at all, and I water in early morning, with a hose onto the ground--no sprinkler. The foliage stays pretty dry. And something poked a hole in my pumpkin--would that be a bird or a squirrel problem? Here are some pictures of the problems.

The holey pumpkin



The white leaves:


Thanks,
Sarah

I grew Luminas last year - and again this year. They're generally pretty easy and low maintenance, but you may want to lightly mist the leaves if it gets too hot. The leaves last year didn't change color so I can't help you there...could it be a difficiency of some sort? I also hear of people foliar feeding - putting diluted fertilizer on the leaves themselves. The holes are probably from birds or squirrels, they love pumpkins! You can silicone little holes if caught early enough, but if they get bigger the pumpkin might as well go in the compost pile. Also with white pumpkin, if they are left too long on the vine/get too much sun at the end of their season they will go bluish.

I'm not sure what kind these are--they are from a pumpkin farm from Halloween last year. I'll try giving them some fish fertilizer and sprinkling it onto the leaves...haven't fertilized these guys yet anyway. We have lots of birds and squirrels around here. So that is probably what poked that hole. Anything I can do to repel them from my pumpkins? (I have a nearby garden that the birds keep bug-free for me.) Thanks for the tip about them turning bluish--I'll be writing that one down!

Sarah

Hi there, no problem!

Could you tie reflective strips to anything? We've only had them attack one or two pumpkins in the past (birds that is) and it seemed that as long as we left that pumpkin for them, they didn't touch the rest of our crop.
Good luck!

Thanks for the tip! I only put the fish fertilizer on half the leaves--and those leaves look a lot better! They still have some of the whitish color in their veins but no where near as bad!

Good! Glad to be of some help!

Don't worry about the white in the leaves, it's a natural colouring, not sooty mould. Fish fert is great for your pumpkins . They love it.
A rat usually gets into my pumpkins, i leave the damaged pumpkin for him to finish and he generally leaves the others alone. Been trying to catch him for nearly a year now. Clever critter. I'll get him one day.

My pumpkin was a flower 9 days ago and today it is a little bigger than a softball! It is growing so fast that I'm worried that I won't have any pumpkins for halloween! Not that it matters too much, I'm gonna be making and canning some pumpkin pie filling!

At least your little friend only eats one pumpkin and not a several deadly bites out of each one.