Pumpkins...

[Juneboarder]

I am attempting to grow pumpkins for my first time, and wondering if there's any method to the madness. The reason I inquire is because the plant has been growing like crazy, and while growing, I've been trying to direct the leaves along the wall, but not along the ground. One of the branches grew so long it reached the ground and now has a baby pumpkin growing. My question is, does the vine need to grow on the ground to produce pumpkins, or am I just jumping to conclusions here? Any tips that anyone can offer on growing nice, healthy pumpkins would be great!!

Thank you :)

[hippywife]

1. It's probably going to depend

on they size of the pumpkins. If they're going to be big ones, the ground will probably have to do. I have small pie pumpkins planted and am going to try to train them vertically on some old heavy gauge field panels. I've been saving the mesh produce bags to use as slings when they get too heavy to hang by themselves.