Oh, someone has to be kidding me. Apparently that big pumpkin plant managed to sneak out one female flower that neither my wife or I spotted. It popped out a fruit on a section of vine that had done a little climbing on a nearby okra plant. I was gonna redirect or just cut off that part of the pumpkin vine yesterday evening — instead I went out after getting back home, saw the okra plant pulled down by the vine and then found the pumpkin fruit too, but the pumpkin vine had partially (2/3?) “broken”. Hard to say how much of that was the weight of the fruit (it’s maybe 2” diameter), how much the inherent weight of the vine, and how much the heavy dew on the plants. I basically made up a splint out of a straight piece of a twig, and masking tape, and tried to essentially graft the vine back together. The leaves past the break look ok this morning (not wilted), so, I guess we’ll see how this goes.
Assuming no other fruits show up, I wonder how big a pumpkin we might have by Halloween? And will it ripen in 2 months?
The “parent” pumpkin was about 15” diameter and about the same height. The present plant occupies (densely) about 8’ x 9’ of ground.
You might have a Blue Ribbon Winner at the State Fair on your hands! ;)