#giant pumpkin

[weepingwidar]

Luigi Zuccheri (1904-1974) - Untitled (Piazza con Zucca, Topo, Falco e Figure Umane) (1955/60)

[susanyung]

Belated Happy Halloween! My little trick or treat paradel is on its way to spooky up the town!

I've had a sketch of this in my back log for so long, always had this colorful idea to celebrate Halloween but just never got round to it. I also originally planned to do this in gouache but I ran out of time.

They are just too cute to not finish, just a little playful take on the creatures that you see on the decorations each year. I have a soft spot for baby dracula!!

[briagrant]

next week we get to see the infamous giant pumpkin roaming the streets of LA and I couldn't be more excited

[onlytiktoks]

[witchyengineersblog]

These pumpkins weigh as much as my cows (mind blown) 🎃

[dougielombax]

Lymington twins squash world record for biggest pumpkin - BBC News

The giant pumpkin's huge size is confirmed during an annual vegetable-weighing event in Reading.

Let’s take a look.

DAMN!!!! That’s a HUGE bitch right there!!!!!!

Absolute unit of a pumpkin!

MASSIVE!!!!!

Astounding stuff.

[flowerishness]

Cucurbita maxima (giant pumpkin)

Street Pumpkin

It can be hard to identify the species of a squash plant when you pass one on the street. Most squash flowers are either yellow or orange, so not many clues there. I think this is probably a giant pumpkin, Cucurbita maxima. True the leaves are a bit small and the vines are quite short but in late-July, it's just getting started. Hey, and cut this poor scrawny pumpkin a little slack! It's growing in a smallish pot, it's trailing onto a concrete sidewalk and it's vine is surrounded by weeds and cigarette butts.

Pumpkins have both male and female flowers on the same plant and they bloom as a couple. The male flowers are big and showy, and grow on long stalks. Female flowers are smaller and close to the ground - all the better to support the Great Pumpkin once Halloween arrives. In their native habitat, pumpkins are usually pollinated by squash bees but home gardeners elsewhere are advised to do this job by hand, with a Q-tip.

The squash genus, Cucurbita, is native to Mesoamerica and the Andes. This genus contains pumpkins, cucumbers, gourds and many types of squash (mmm, butternut is my fave!). As with tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and corn, when pumpkins were transferred from the New World to the Old World they were a roaring success. In 2020, world production of pumpkins was 28 million metric tonnes, with China accounting for 27% of the total. In that year, Ukraine and Russia each produced about one million tonnes of pumpkins a year but I suspect the war in Ukraine has affected those statistics.

[halloweencor3]