I am a firm believer that everyone has different challenges to overcome while growing pumpkins.  No matter what part of the world,  country, state, county, or city you live in.  Your challenge will be a little different than the next person.   In Wyoming, there are dramatic difference as it relates to the climate within 15 miles and within any direction.  I live on the high prairie east of Cheyenne, WY.  This is the start of the hail belt and we have more hail than most places.  As I’m typing this entry, it’s storming and the trees are bent down from the wind.  We are having rain intermixed with pea size hail.  Anytime, it is warm and then we get moisture, I start wondering if it will be rain or hail, but 50% of the time, it is hail.  If you don’t have wind and hail netting, it’s hard to get your pumpkins very large where I live.

However, since it’s usually dry and windy, I do not face other challenges that growers back east do.  We do not have near the number of bugs or diseases to worry about.  We do not know what humidity is and the challenges that come with humidity and rain.

The photo below is my 1426 Wolf.  This plant has a thick stem and large leaves.  The plant does not like heat above 75 degrees and it seems to flag very easy.  So far, the pumpkin is probably one of the heaviest that I have encountered.  Just moving it around so that it is 90 degrees with  the vine tells me that this might go heavy.  Even when it was little, it weighed notably more than the other pumpkins I have ever moved around.  So far it is on day 27 and has been averaging 15 pounds per a day.  We have already had several nights at our house where the temperature has dropped into the 40’s so all my plants have drastically slowed down.  Otherwise, I would have hoped for 20 to 25 pounds a day out of it.