Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

Geez this miserable pumpkin growing weather!  In the previous post (read it by clicking  here ), I mentioned the rough start to the season and how the two potential pumpkin plants were not looking healthy.  I put them in the ground on the 7th but as mentioned in the previous post, just in time or COLD May weather.  And it was miserably cold!   Almost this entire month some days were really chilly and overnight lows have been below average.  Thus, the soil temperature has been below normal.  The plants were covered by two large pots for about 5 days.  Even today the plants are growing only very slowly.  Here is the 250.... And the 1257.... There were two other plants that germinated but they look even worse!  I don't know what the issue is.  I went ahead and started 3 more pumpkins of different genetics, just in case.  If they take off and I replaced these two above, the planting would be REALLY late for giants!  We'll see.  Those pumpkins won't germinate for another

Well, it's off to a rough giant pumpkin season - AGAIN!  I started seeds that have very high potential on April 14.  You can read about the genetics of those sees in that posting by clicking  here .  Of the 3 seeds of the 1257, only 2 germinated.  Both of the 250's germinated.  BUT, all the plants appear to be deformed in some way (they don't look healthy at all).  I've never had this happen! Regardless, I planted one 250 and one 1257 last evening.  Bad timing.  COLD May weather is expected for the next 5 days.  Lows will be in the 30s (maybe even some frost).  Next Monday the high may not get above 50! For now both plants are covered.  We'll see how this goes. With the cold start and with the plants looking very unhealthy, I'm not encouraged nor am I expecting a successful season.  I may end up planting a full regiment of field pumpkins instead.  Geez.