It seems I’ve been too ambitious… 5 of the 6 golden nugget pumpkin seedlings sprouted then have grown super fast and the 20 gallon grow bags were ordered too late.
spoiler
(Plus to fill all 5 would take like fifteen or sixteen 25l bags of potting mix. To fill two containers would be a little over six which is more doable but I wanted four plants.)
That’s a lot of money and a lot of labour shoveling it in. (Especially with 4 of the jack be little just sown. They might survive in the last four remaining 30cm pots though and are more stakeable.)
Would it be super bad to just scratch out holes in the grass and plant the golden nuggets in ground? I haven’t had the soil tested for toxic metals yet because I have not been able to get to the post office, and am weird about the thought of the soil tainting the fruit.
It might not be tooo bad… Apparently fruiting stuff is lower risk.
While I haven’t had mine tested specifically yet, from the research gate map from 2018 my spot looks low for lead contamination. There has also been exposure to cat poop and a buried pet bird but that was about 4/5 years ago.
Just feels weird. With their size I’m going to have to decide soon but don’t want to accidentally give anyone gross produce. And Melbcat might be having some purée too.
Unless the soil was previously a rubbish tip, a chemical factory, or owned by weirdo who liked to water their garden with leaded petrol, the amount of lead in the soil is likely to be minuscule. (And other heavy metals too. It would just whatever the background level is, which is fine for food, all soils our farmed food is grown in have naturally present trace metals to various degrees). But if it’s not in your comfort zone, then that’s ok! Just grow the pumpkins for ornamental value, or learning a new skill, or still life subjects for your art, or providing flowers for pollinators, and eventually compost for the garden to keep the worms happy and soil healthy. The goal doesn’t have to be food production, it’s still enjoyable to watch things grow.
Thanks, my goal is mainly food production though :(
I started doing this to give veg to a friend and their family and hope to expand to give some to a community pantry
Edit: I just used the last of my potting mix to plant them out into some soy milk boxes with holes in the bottom. That should buy me some time to decide. There’s not much width but there is space for roots to grow down.
Most people would love to be gifted home grown veg, and would have zero concerns that it was grown in the ground. It would be the default expectation. But for your friend you could always just describe how they were grown and ask them if they are cool with it? For the pantry, could you label it as local home grown, so then people know when they are taking it. Sorry that doesn’t really answer your question, Thirnburys idea of putting something in the ground might be the other option.
You could put a barrier under each developing fruit to protect them from the soil - a plastic lid or a plank or a brick or something would work. Not cardboard - gets too soggy when wet.
Probably yes. If you have bad soil, then root vegetables are the ones at highest risk. Leafy veg and fruits (like pumpkins) are a LOT lower risk. Also, anything that needs peeling is very low risk indeed. And pumpkins are usually peeled/skinned before cooking/eating as the skin turns into fingernail parings when cooked. So even for those who don’t know how the pumpkins were grown would not need to worry.
It seems I’ve been too ambitious… 5 of the 6 golden nugget pumpkin seedlings sprouted then have grown super fast and the 20 gallon grow bags were ordered too late.
spoiler
(Plus to fill all 5 would take like fifteen or sixteen 25l bags of potting mix. To fill two containers would be a little over six which is more doable but I wanted four plants.)
That’s a lot of money and a lot of labour shoveling it in. (Especially with 4 of the jack be little just sown. They might survive in the last four remaining 30cm pots though and are more stakeable.)
Would it be super bad to just scratch out holes in the grass and plant the golden nuggets in ground? I haven’t had the soil tested for toxic metals yet because I have not been able to get to the post office, and am weird about the thought of the soil tainting the fruit.
It might not be tooo bad… Apparently fruiting stuff is lower risk.
While I haven’t had mine tested specifically yet, from the research gate map from 2018 my spot looks low for lead contamination. There has also been exposure to cat poop and a buried pet bird but that was about 4/5 years ago.
Just feels weird. With their size I’m going to have to decide soon but don’t want to accidentally give anyone gross produce. And Melbcat might be having some purée too.
Unless the soil was previously a rubbish tip, a chemical factory, or owned by weirdo who liked to water their garden with leaded petrol, the amount of lead in the soil is likely to be minuscule. (And other heavy metals too. It would just whatever the background level is, which is fine for food, all soils our farmed food is grown in have naturally present trace metals to various degrees). But if it’s not in your comfort zone, then that’s ok! Just grow the pumpkins for ornamental value, or learning a new skill, or still life subjects for your art, or providing flowers for pollinators, and eventually compost for the garden to keep the worms happy and soil healthy. The goal doesn’t have to be food production, it’s still enjoyable to watch things grow.
Thanks, my goal is mainly food production though :(
I started doing this to give veg to a friend and their family and hope to expand to give some to a community pantry
Edit: I just used the last of my potting mix to plant them out into some soy milk boxes with holes in the bottom. That should buy me some time to decide. There’s not much width but there is space for roots to grow down.
Most people would love to be gifted home grown veg, and would have zero concerns that it was grown in the ground. It would be the default expectation. But for your friend you could always just describe how they were grown and ask them if they are cool with it? For the pantry, could you label it as local home grown, so then people know when they are taking it. Sorry that doesn’t really answer your question, Thirnburys idea of putting something in the ground might be the other option.
Good idea. If it wasn’t for the past things I would be less concerned
You could put a barrier under each developing fruit to protect them from the soil - a plastic lid or a plank or a brick or something would work. Not cardboard - gets too soggy when wet.
That works. But with the soil the fruit will be ok to give away?
Probably yes. If you have bad soil, then root vegetables are the ones at highest risk. Leafy veg and fruits (like pumpkins) are a LOT lower risk. Also, anything that needs peeling is very low risk indeed. And pumpkins are usually peeled/skinned before cooking/eating as the skin turns into fingernail parings when cooked. So even for those who don’t know how the pumpkins were grown would not need to worry.
That’s good, thanks! I’ve done an emergency repot into something improvised to buy time and will consider my options