Halloween is coming up, and the best way to get the perfect pumpkin is to grow your own. Some famous Instagrammers are sharing a unique hack to make sure your garden-grown pumpkins become big this fall.
The scoop
Kevin & Crew (@epicgardening), whose channel Epic Gardening now has 1.1 million followers, uploaded a Reel to show gardeners (and those aspiring to become one) an interesting way to get the best out of their pumpkin harvest.
The narrator opens by saying, "This is the key to growing giant pumpkins."
The Reel begins with images of a garden, followed by the narrator showing us how "pumpkins grow roots beneath their main stem, but at every leaf node this little white dot will grow more."
He elaborates on how this gives the plant "the energy to grow huge" as he digs a hole beside the stems.
After removing "every single pumpkin but one," he gently moves the stem into the trench and sprinkles rooting hormones over the stem "so your pumpkin generates roots faster."
He buries the stem and waters the soil under which the pumpkin stems are not hidden.
"Now roots will grow from each of these nodes to give our giant pumpkin more energy," he concludes.
How it's helping
Growing your own pumpkins can definitely save you money in the long term while saving you that trip to the store as well.
Whether it's pumpkins, tomatoes, or carrots, growing your own produce can be much more affordable than buying it at the supermarket or even from the local pumpkin stand.
Also, producing your own fruits and veggies from a home garden can be highly beneficial to the natural environment.
For one, it avoids buying produce that is usually wrapped in plastic, of which only about 5% gets recycled in the United States. Also, around 80% of all the pollution in the ocean today comes from plastic, which generally takes between 500-1,000 years to degrade and is killing aquatic sea animals by the millions each year.
Harvesting your own food in a lush garden with natural vegetation also saves water and removes more planet-warming pollutants from the atmosphere when compared to traditional grass lawns.
What people are saying
One commenter admitted they are "not loving the idea of adding hormones, but maybe that's me," while another added how they've "heard aloe Vera is a good natural rooting hormone you can use."
Another person chimed in, saying, "This is a game changer."
Someone who sounded like an experienced pumpkin grower said, "I did this with my Seminole pumpkin to help deal with vine borers and it completely saved the plant."
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