10/14/2022
Well fall is here, and unfortunately the Wide Awake Farm pumpkin patch didn't yield enough to do a pick your own weekend, but we still ended up with thirty gourds!(36 counting the three I left on for my own research purposes, and three that were obliterated when SOMEBODY got a little wild with the w**d whacker.)
We did however learn some things to take with us into next season:
•Pumpkin plants are very hardy when it comes to drought conditions, we only lost one out of 55 to the weather. While the plants will survive, they struggle to produce fruit.
•Pumpkins are also sensitive to nitrogen poisoning, which in turn causes them to only produce male flowers, impacting your yield as well
• If you notice stink bugs are attracted to your pumpkins, they're probably not stink bugs! Squash bugs look very similar, and will decimate your crop. These pests lead to my impromptu harvest tonight.
All in all it was a neat little project, and hopefully next fall we will will be open for business!