Minnie and Ester put on weight.

As I suspected the first pumpkin Dawn that stopped growing had gone soft at the base so I cut her off the middle plant tonight. She is now destined for pumpkin cake. Other small pumpkins have formed on this plant so one of these will be allowed to grow on.


However, the pumpkins on the two other plants, Minnie and Ester, have now overtaken Dawn so tonight I took the opportunity to get them off the ground onto a wooden board with a couple of old compost bags between. This extra padding will stop stones puncturing the flesh and allowing rot to get in. I could just about lift them to do this so not a moment too soon. Whether they will be as big as Heidi last year at 262lbs only time will tell but the daily growth is noticeable. It was this time last year that Heidi really took off so we shall see. I am leaving a couple of grapefruit sized fruits on each plant at any one time to act as 'buffers'.


The idea is that these smaller fruits stop all the sap going into the big fruit, as too much 'pressure' can cause them to burst open. However, you don't want these buffer fruit to grow too big and take too much away from the one you intend to show. I cut these smaller fruits before they get to football size so it's a bit of a balancing act.