[joe8756438]

I’ve had terrible luck growing pumpkins until this year when I put five root bound starts in the former bedding of my goose flock. All the starts were tangled together in a two gallon pot, didn’t even bother separating. Those plants easily produced 200lbs of pumpkins.

My neighbor, who gave me the starts and took much greater care with the plants, had all of his die from various pests and diseases.

[dylan604]

I had a pumpkin patch growing earlier this year that was decimated by bugs. I tried every "organic" method of treating the bugs to no avail. It was all just for the lulz, and specifically wanted to avoid pesticides. The bugs won

[joe8756438]

My takeaway from that experience is that nutrition is the best way to prevent disease/pests. once there’s a problem it’s probably too late.

[dylan604]

The plants were healthy until the bugs. The vines were growing, the leaves were huge, and they had just started to produce flowers. I've never seen the type of bugs, some stink bug type of beetle, in my yard ever before. Now that I've removed the dead plants, there's no sign of the bugs. For as many as there were, I'd expect to see some remaining. It's always a learning experience growing new plants