growing the great pumpkin

hi, i'm new here. thanks for having me! i was trying to grow the great pumpkin but sadly it didn't make it. i noticed it wilted so i went to water it and got to looking at the stem and noticed it was discolored and moved a little of the soil and found that about a 1/2" below the surface it was rotten, black and slimy. :eek: anyone have any thoughts on that? i didn't think to check what was above ground for a borer.

i wanted to try to start another one, but don't know if i have a soil problem or bug problem. i realize i won't get a big pumpkin, but i wanted to see how much of a pumpkin i could get.

if it is a bug, got any suggestions as to how to prevent the critters from eating my pumpkin?

thanks!

I've never had that problem but it does sound like a crown rot problem or a borer ofsome sort. You'll want to use insecticides.

That being said, it isn't late. Pumpkins are a 100 day crop, October 31st is 120 days away still, right?

Make sure when you grow you let the various leaf nodes root as well... sort of like a backup.

Check out:

http://www.bigpumpkins.com

great resource.