More Garden Madness - the case of the Golden Nugget Pumpkins

The other month I dyed a white dress for a friend's wedding. It was meant to go a pastel yellow, but it ended up pumpkin orange. Still a lovely colour but in the end I opted for a different dress for the wedding. However, the pumpkin colour is a bit ironic at the moment, given pumpkins are the veg du jour in the balcony garden. If you thought growing corn in containers was crazy, wait till you see these golden beauties. It was only this year that I decided pumpkins would also be a delight to grow. I opted to grow a single golden nugget pumpkin, which has a bush habit and is ideal for pots.

I only wanted one and I wanted to put it in a large white box with some lettuce around it. Problem was these little gems came in a four pack. As it cost as much as a single seedling I thought no problems, I'll just use one and give the others away. Pumpkin pot number one was born (as you can see it has progressed a little since then.)

But then I thought maybe I could continue the zucchini experiment and try growing a pumpkin in a smaller container, and this container was already pumpkin coloured so it seemed perfect. There we had container number two.

But then I decided maybe I could try growing one up in the slightly shady bit with some beans and some silverbeet. So another pumpkin seedling went it. But then I decided that maybe this container could fit two pumpkin seedlings in it, along with the rest and that it might be better suited down near the airconditioning unit (that never gets turned on when plants are near it) next to the other single pumpkin.

So now I have 4 pumpkin bushes in my balcony garden! And they are in different stages of development. The pot with two in it, as you can see in the above photo, is running behind the others. Stunted by the lack of adequate light and late planting it has a long way to go. The single one has one pumpkin so far, and tonnes of male flowers (not enough female flowers though)

The first one planted has two pumpkins on it! See the development as they grow and grow.

I'll be happy if the harvest is just this size though given they keep growing at such a pace I wont be surprised if I get a few more. I can't wait till they are ripe, but I know it is a long time coming. I love pumpkin so I'll be interested to see what the golden nuggets taste like. Ever grown pumpkin in pots before? Any tips? Tricks?