THANK YOU for ALL the offers I have received....I got SOOOO many,off forum, I am now out of seeds. Thanks! Darren

I have several seeds from a "giant" pumpkin plant(unnamed) that we bought at our local nursery that I have harvested and dried. Our pumpkin weighed ~80#, but we did not add fertilizer, or any special tricks to make them grow larger. I will trade seeds for appropriate perennials for growing in zone 5. I am especially looking for reds, chocolates, double decker echinacea, verbascum, dianthus sooty, geranium splish splash, verigated sedum,or make me an offer.

weirdtrev; thx much for rply. I am growing pie size pumpkins (a little smaller than the typical jack-o-lantern") so I guess I am doing OK. I see fields with waaaaay more pumpkins than I'm getting but that must be simply because they're planting a lot more vines. my vines grow very vigorously (easily 10' or more) so I was expecting more pumpkins particularly with the number of flowers on each vine. Question: should the vine be trimmed at some point during the season? I will try your suggestion of burying the vines. I am growing the pumpkins in the area between young fruit trees so it's not grass; just whatever weeds are there. I am mulching the mound with the same wood chip mulch I use around my fruit trees. again thx for help. Mark in MN

Dixie..I would love to try some of your mellons..will you please look at my trade page..I don't have any mellons to offer you...I would gladly do an sasbe also...thanks,Jody