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  • From: Matt Cheselka <cheselka AT theriver.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Pumpkin Patch
  • Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 17:29:27 -0700 (MST)


Hi Folks,

I've got an opportunity to manage the development and growing of a pumpkin
patch. If all works out, they'd be available to anyone who came and
picked them (a "u-pick"). I'll probably charge something per pound, but
that's TBD. Where the money will go is also TBD. Who will pay for the
startup costs is TBD. I'll try to manage the whole thing, keep it
watered, keep it happy, advertise it (if pumpkins actually *grow* there!
ha!), and anything else I can do. I may or may not have additional help
in terms of covering the initial cost, doing the work, etc.

Anyhow, the land that's available is about 40 acres, but I'd never
consider growing THAT much. I'm thinking more like 2-5 acres. Doing the
math, if I put 2 seeds at 18" in rows 6ft apart, I'm talking (for 2 acres)
about 18,000 seeds or about 6 pounds of seeds. Cool. Johnny's sells 5
pounds of 'Tom Fox' pumpkins for $181. Cheap and easy. Any suggestions
as to variety (and maybe I should consider a few varieties -- a pound of
this and a pound of that). I'm looking at a customer base of about 30,000
people.

My *real* question is about two things:

1. Preparing the soil
2. Feasability in terms of manangement

This land was used several years ago to grow pumpkins, which is why the
idea came up to try to do it again. My guess is that the soil is fertile
enough to just drop the seeds in, but maybe I should get some soil tests
done. Irrigation is already in place, but so are the weeds. I'm going to
have to find someone to at least disk the area to try to get rid of the
weeds (any other suggestions on terms of weeding a 5 acre area would be
appreciated). I've already been informed about liability insurance and am
looking into it.

Anyhow, for the moment I'm going to throw this topic out to you and see
what response I get. I have my own ideas, but I've never done anything
on this scale before, so I'd like to hear from those of you who've
actually done something like this before so I can see if what I'm thinking
is reasonable. Looking to have a harvest at the end of October, I need to
get seeds into the ground by early-mid July.

Thanks for any help and/or advice.

Why am I wanting to do this? I dunno -- insanity comes to mind as a
reasonable explaination. ;)

Matt Cheselka
Cosmic Lettuce





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