Corn and pumpkins?

[Aaron]

How I have save seeds, every year when my kids carved pumpkins I would collect the seeds and spread them out on a sheet of newspaper. I leave the seeds on there for about 2 days then some of the seeds are stuck together , I just bust them apart and put on fresh newspaper for a few weeks. I save the seeds in a large zip lock bag. I haven’t had to worry about hybrid seeds because I only have non hybrid pumpkins. When planting I put extra seeds in my hills to compensate for a few bad seeds. I would say maybe 75% or more grow. I do plant in hills, what I do is take a small handful of fertilizer and drop it on the ground and cover with a small pile of dirt, then put 4-6 seeds in it and lightly pack it. I like fertilizing this way, because I don’t fertilize the weeds that way. It takes time doing it this way but it did work good.

 

[sagittarius]

Deer do not eat my pumpkins either, too much other forage for them to eat. Once in a while I see teeth marks during the growing season. When I give some to my cousin, about 10 miles away, and with in 3 nights, the deer will stomp and eat them next to his house. The deer are welcome to my excess pumpkins, but I would never plant them just for the deer. There are too many other more efficient forages available.

 

[kskid]

3 years ago I bought 2 lbs. (~$8) of sugar pumpkin seeds for 1 acre deer plot in NE KS. They were simple to plant (till ground, drop 4 seeds, kick dirt over them, take 2 steps, repeat). They came in great! Deer never touched them, but the kids were ecstatic. Pumpkins were small, so I saved the seeds from a large pumpkin and planted both the next year. Kids liked them even better, deer still didn't touch them. This year we added gourds and moved the pumpkin patch from the food plot to the wife's (new) garden. Finally ran out of seeds. Best $8 I ever spent. We plant around mid June & they're ready for picking around Oct. 1. I'll never do it again for deer, but I'll do it every year for fun.