WHACKING OUT THE PUMPKINS! / LET'S GROW A PUMPKIN / EPISODE THREE

Good morning everyone and welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I would love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you are new and there are lots of other ways to follow me just down below in the description bar too. Today is the most exciting day because it's the day I'm going to plant out all of my pumpkins. If you've been following me so far you'll know that I love to grow a pumpkin archway and I've been doing a little grow along with you all and so today is the day that I'm going to put out my pumpkins. You might have already done it actually because the weather has been quite good and it's getting warmer so it is safe now to put your pumpkins out as long as you protect them really well from slugs and snails because they do love it when plants go out for the first time and they're quite new and they just go mad for them. It's like a massive meal for them, it's like like chocolate basically, so make sure that you protect them really well. So I'm going to show you the varieties that I've grown and what's going to go up my archway this year and what's not as well because I did kind of over sow. You won't be surprised to hear that. So here are all my pumpkins that I've sown at home and I ran out of these things, what they're called, plant label things. So what I've done is I've planted the same thing in the same pot so that I would remember what they are this year because last year I did plant a courgette on my pumpkin arch which did not work as you can imagine. So these are my Ukikikiris, done pretty well. I've got two of those to go up the archway. These are my Jacobi Littles, again done pretty well to be honest and they're in the square pots and then these ones here are my Patipans. I don't think these are going to go on my my pumpkin arch because I don't think they like to climb. Someone told me they're more like bushes so I don't think they're going to go up the archway but I do have the baby boos so they're going to go up there which again look really happy. So last year when I did my pumpkin arch and it worked really well I did three pumpkins each side of the archway and that seemed to just be plenty so that's what I'm going to do again this year just three each side which doesn't seem like a lot but you do get about eight to ten pumpkins per plant so if I've got six I mean you do the maths because I can't but a lot basically a lot. I'm going to start with a bit ground preparation basically. Pumpkins are very hungry plants so I'm going to dig out all the weeds make sure the ground is nice by nice I kind of mean not in a chunk like that but sort of broken up like that basically and then we're going to put some compost in the bottom of each hole and give them a feed as well when they first go in so that's what we're going to do first. See I like to do this job with my hands because it's just easier. I'm sure there's a tool out there that'll break this up for you but I'd only break it so what's the point? You can't break your hands, well you can but you could fix them so let's chop them off. So I've taken some of the compost out of my polytunnel and I'm going to use it for my pumpkins just because I'm not using that compost right now and it's just sort of sitting there I'm sure it's doing some goodness but I need compost and I didn't buy any so I'm going to use this to line the insides of the holes for my pumpkins so we're going to position them now. So I'm thinking Jack be little on the end a kiki kuri in the middle because it's quite big and then a baby boo over here just because I think that's where they should go. The only thing is I don't know which round way round to plant them so pumpkins tend to grow a certain way and that's the way that they kind of develop most of their leaves and that's the way that they'll climb so it's either one way or the other and if you plant it the wrong way round then you'll have to bend the stem round and then you can kind of snap the stem so you don't really want to do that so you have to work out which way your pumpkin is growing and normally that is the way away from the first true leaf so for instance I'm not going to explain this right and I'm definitely going to get it wrong but this was my first true leaf what was it that was that my first true leaf this was my first true leaf and so it's going to grow away from my first true leaf so this way so you can see it's already starting to grow that way does that make any sense so I have to put it in that way and it will continue to grow that way and then up that's the idea anyway as always with this channel take that with a pinch of salt because I don't really know and last year I did end up digging them up and turn them up turning them around the other way because I got them the wrong way so you've just got to go with your gut really just go with your gut and if you get it wrong dig them up that's the advice I can give you right let's whack them in right so we dig a hole which is pretty standard for any plant really isn't it does help if you have a working shovel now we're going to fill it with a bit of compost because like I said pumpkins are very hungry so we want to give them a good bed basically I don't think that's the right way but it's what we've done so like I said you can always dig them up again and just turn them around a little bit I mean it's not ideal but I did it last year and they all survived so but I think that's about right it's going to be roughly the right way that's what's important right whack the rest in this one don't look right it don't look like it's going the right way I think it should be going that way right okay here's what we'll do we'll dig him back up straight away and turn him round watch this sometimes if it don't look right it's probably not right so just change it and then it'll be right there you go can't get any easier advice really can you that looks better it looks like he's going to go that way now excellent he looks a bit dead I better water him pretty quick and he looks okay so we're going to think about slug and snail protection pretty quickly because they are going to love these new plants so I'm going to use two different methods one of them is going to be my scouring pads which I'll show you in a minute and the other one it's going to be this stuff which has always not let me down basically it's called slug gone and it's wall pellets which basically break up on the soil and then the slugs and snails don't like to feel at them so they don't slither over them same as the scouring pads and we'll see how we go with those unfortunate with these if the leaf is touching the soil like that they'll just climb up and climb over and so they're only really good as long as your plant is upright or not touching the soil so that's why I'm going to use the slug slug gone stuff as well the wall pellets but it's best to have lots of protection really so hot today but time to get the patty pans out as soon as they're out I'm out there because I'm sweltering the patty pans are going to go where my courgettes went last year I'm not growing courgettes this year because I seem to be utterly incapable of growing a modest amount and I just ended up with too many and even this year the next year I'm just done with courgettes so I'm going to put my patty pans in there now patty pans look like spaceships they look like little spaceship pumpkins and apparently they're more bushy so I think they'll do quite well underneath the sweet corn basically so that's what we're going to whack them in now so let's get those in Rocky the cat's been using my new raised bed as a toilet again I thought this was a giant slug when I first saw it and then when I realized what it was I was like oh Rocky I mean why has he done it right next to the broccoli why couldn't he just do it over here there's loads of room over here but he's done it here I'm assuming that's a cat but also look at all the slug trails and yet none of my broccoli have been eaten even the one that's unprotected so where's the slug gone then it's gone there what's that bindweed it's gone on there where's he gone there's no sign of him maybe he doesn't like broccoli right there we go my patty pans and my pumpkins and my pumpkin arch are out in the allotment plot so hopefully they won't get eaten and they'll grow really well let me know if you're putting yours out at the moment um hopefully you will be because um the weather's nice now so you can get them out if they do die I have got contingency pumpkins that I'm growing at home so I've got another whole set basically and I'll just replace them which is fine because you can plant your pumpkins out throughout June throughout July and you'll still probably get a harvest so just whack them in whenever you can and if they die whack in another one or put seed in the ground or go and buy them from a garden center so there's so many options don't worry about it um but hopefully these ones will survive and do really well hope you enjoyed the video if you did subscribe to my channel and I will see you next time thanks for watching bye