Giant Pumpkin Challenge.

Bugger!!  I'm out.

I was out checking over the pumpkin that I was soooo happy with...And it is going soft.  I tried to to lift it to see if anything has been nibbling on it's bottom cause something sure has gone wrong and it broke off from the vine. And I was such a bragger!  Pride come before the fall, I think I have heard that somewhere. 

And looking at the vine it is really looking ratty, not sure why I haven't noticed before now and done something about it.  Heaps of powdery mildew and probably my fault because I had sprinklers on for the chooks and forgot to check the coverage.  I am a bad pumpkin mummy.

So, I will feed the soft pumpkin to the chooks, I will cut the vine right back, water it, feed it, mulch it, start again and see what happens.  There are a few flowers on there still, and I think I saw a small fruit.  And I still have the other vine, I know there is a couple of fruit on that.  Will need to go out and check...

Hmmm.  Been out, checked...I am a very bad pumpkin mummy.

The second vine has 2 decentish size fruit on it and maybe 4-6 smaller tennis ball size pumpkins.
One of the bigger ones is going brown and is soft.  It is the size of a basketball.

The other looks like something, chickens maybe, has been nibbling on the top.  OK, as chickens can't nibble it is either something else or the marks are not nibble marks but small peck marks.  No matter, it all means the same.  I have not protected my pumpkins from creatures/critters and they are suffering.

The 4litre icecream container is to show the size, it is not a hat.  It is not there to protect the pumpkin from nibbling, pecking critters/creatures...It was handy and the tape measure wasn't.  It is HOT out there now so I will cut back and do the water, feed, mulch thing this evening.