This has been my number one problem with pumpkins. I’ve tried water dams, drip systems, sprinklers, you name it. I do have a favorite now, and I can thank Cameron Andelin, owner of Andelin Family Farm for sharing this tip with me.
Sub-surface Watering!
I won’t ever use another method. Some drip tape buried 4″ under the surface is incredibly effective at giving your greedy gourds the water they need and crave. It prevents evaporation, greatly reduces the amount of weeds, and it drastically lowers the amount of water you use by a LOT!
An automated irrigation system is needed to accomplish this. They don’t cost a lot, and it’s easy to setup. I water my pumpkins every 3 days, for 1 hour at a time at 4:00 in the morning. The emitters on the drip tape are .5 gph (I believe).
In Reno, NV, it does get above 100 for a few days out of the year. The pumpkin leaves do wilt during these days. My pumpkin plants used to look like they were dying during 100+ degree days, but every since I’ve started using the under ground watering method, my pumpkin leaves don’t wilt any more!
It turns out, I was over-watering my pumpkins for years causing the roots to be damaged, not allowing the plant to take in as much water as they needed to provide water to the leaves on hot summer days. Before, I would make a little water dam around the pumpkin plant that held about a gallon of water, and would water the pumpkins nearly every day because I thought they needed it. At least that’s what the leaves were telling me when they were wilting in the middle of the day. The temperature would rise, the leaves would wilt, and I’d automatically think, “they need more water!”, which would fix the wilting temporarily, but at the same time, all that watering was also making the problem a lot worse. The roots were very shallow because the ground was so saturated with water that it killed the roots that were supposed to run deep. Pumpkins need a lot of water, but nowhere near as much as I was giving them. They were drowning.
Under ground watering changed this. My pumpkins don’t wilt any more. The roots grow strong and deep. I grew my record setting Jack o’ Lantern last year. It weighed 42 lbs. Sub-surface watering for pumpkins, IMO, is the absolute best way to water pumpkins. My next post, I will go more into sub-surface watering & how I setup my system. There’s a few things that are very important so you don’t damage your irrigation system.