Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All
I have a three bay compost bin, one full of 9 month old cow muck. Can I plant a pumpkin directly into the muck without loss of the plant, I started the pumpkin in the greenhouse at the beginning of May.

BG

As a student my summer job one year was on a farm, tail end of it we helped the contractor doing the muck spreading from the cattle yard slurry pit.
One of the old boys started th job by scooting out over the crust on some boards that just about stayed afloat with him on them.
Guess where the village show prize marrow grew each year?


So it should be OK, but I'd make a hole the size of a ten inch pot, fill that with potting compost and put the plant in that.

Do watch out for slugs! They tend to lurk in compost bins and are very partial to pumpkin plantlets!

The method given to me for growing curcubits was to dig a substantial hole and fillit with manure, then add water until it is virtually liquid before adding the young plant. I will be using the base of my manure heap this year for my squash.

After last year I decided not to bother ,I had one that needed two people to carry I put it in the trailer outside our front door then cut it in half with a saw ,I used it in some soup I was making it was far to sweet I did not rate it at all I gave the rest to the chickens

Thanks to all of you

I'm convinced I'll give it a try, I'll let you know later in the year.


BG

My partner grew a LOT of pumpkins last year and they really were not worth eating - very bland - and very, very heavy. Fortunately (for me) mice or rats got at many of them.