Planting Guide – Starting Pumpkins from Seed

Do you grow pumpkins?  They take up a ton of room in the garden, but there is nothing better come fall than strolling out to your pumpkin patch. That’s why I typically integrate them right into my landscaping for the gardening season. I usually grow some for decorating the front porch and some for pie making.

I have grown just about every variety you can imagine over the years, but my favorites are:

• French Cinderella {I mean, come on, with a name like that, you HAVE to grow them.}
• Sugar Pie {the best for pumpkin puree}
• Howden Pumpkins {for carving}
• Jarrahdale {great roasted and in stews!}

How to Grow Pumpkin From Seed:

Pumpkins are best started directly outdoors, unless you have a super short growing season {in which case, start them indoors about 2 weeks before you plan to transplant them outside}.  To start them outdoors, mound your dirt into little hills, about 1′ wide.  Plant 3-4 seeds, 1″ deep in each hill.  The seed packets will tell you to space them 4-6 feet apart, I personally am a rebel and pack them in about 3 feet apart.  I have never had an issue, so I plan to keep up with my wild ways.

When the seedlings are about 1″ tall, thin them to one per mound.  Provide them with plenty of sun and water, and they’ll do the rest of the work.

**If you are growing a Jack-o-Lantern variety and want to get bigger pumpkins, leave 2-3 pumpkins on the vine {once they have started to form} and cut off the rest.  That way, the plant can focus all its energy on those 2-3 pumpkins.

When are Pumpkins Ready to Harvest?

Pumpkins are ready to harvest once they have reached full color and the vine has started to die back.  It’s best to harvest them before the first fall frost.  To harvest them, cut them off the vine using a sharp knife.  Leave 3-4 inches of the stem on the pumpkin–they will last much longer.  Allow them to cure in a dry sunny place in the garden for a week or two before storing or eating.

Random Facts That Will Impress No One:

Forget pumpkins, did you know that the Irish originally carved turnips?  Glad we moved onto something a little bigger–I mean, turnips don’t give you much to work with.

In early colonial times, the pumpkin was used as an ingredient in the crust, not as part of the pie filling.  Man, they were totally missing out.

The largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds.  Yikes, talk about a “moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.”

Do you have a pumpkin patch?  What do you use your pumpkins for?  Carving?  Eating?

~Mavis

P.S. Come fall, I love everything PUMPKIN.  For great recipe idea, check out Tender by Nigel Slater. It is seriously one of the best cookbooks I own.