2 out of 3 ain't bad...

Well, the moment has finally arrived. There's no turning back now. They're growing, and they're not going to stop.

On Saturday, I planted 3 enormous seeds. By Tuesday, 2 gigantic little pumpkin vines were poking up out of the soil. I can't tell you all the things I'm feeling right now. But, I'll try to give you a partial list: joy, trepidation, hope, dreaminess, fear, intimidation, etc.



There they are, ladies and gentlemen, harlots, and scoundrels, boys and girls: pumpkins. They may not look like much now, but just to give you an idea of scale, those are in 12” (30 cm) pots. This picture should give you a better idea of scale.



That makes the span of the two cotyledons (hold on) approximately 15 cm. Cotyledons are also known as 'seed leaves' they sit, basically fully formed, inside the seed, awaiting germination, and then they expand out of the seed coat and unfold to begin collecting sunlight and the energy necessary for growth. The pumpkin has 2 of them, which makes it a dicot – the other major group of angiosperms, or flowering plants, is the monocots, like corn and grasses, which have only one cotyledon. They'll fall off quickly once the real leaves start to develop, but the role they're playing now, at the start, while the first leaves develop and the root system starts to well, take root, is critical.

On a related note, I'd like all my friends out there in Pumpkin Land to give big ups to Sarah H., a member in excellent standing of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Ridiculously Humongous Pumpkin Club, who is taking care of the big pumpkins this weekend while I'm in the big apple visiting Eric for the Five Boro Bike Tour. I'm sure she'll do an excellent job of providing them with the food, water, and encouragement they so critically need at this pivotal time.

I'd like to end this with a picture of some pumpkin plants looking pimp, in honor of Eric.