Photo Credit
Maximkabb/Getty
Botanical Name
Cucurbita maxima, C. moschata, C. argyrosperma
Plant Type
Sun Exposure
Bloom Time
Flower Color
Subhead
From spooky jack-o'-lanterns to homemade pies, learn how to plant, grow, and store pumpkins
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Growing
- Use row covers to protect plants early in the season and to prevent insect problems. However, remember to remove covers before flowering to allow pollination.
- Bees are essential for pollination, so be mindful when using insecticides to kill bugs or fungicides to control fungi. If you must use it, apply only in the late afternoon or early evening, when blossoms are closed for the day. To attract more bees, try placing a bee house in your garden. Or, grow colorful flowers near the patch.
- Pumpkins need 1 inch of water per week. Water deeply, in the morning and on very hot afternoons, especially during fruit set. Avoid watering foliage and fruit unless it’s a sunny day. Dampness invites rot and disease.
- Add mulch around your pumpkins to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and discourage pests.
- Weed gently; pumpkins have shallow roots that can be easily damaged. Also, take care not to damage the delicate vines; the quality of the fruit depends on them.
- Side-dress with aged manure or compost mixed with water.
- Small vine varieties can be trained to grow up a trellis. Larger varieties can be trained upward, too, to support the fruit, usually with netting or old stockings.
- Pumpkins are heavy feeders. Side-dress with aged manure or compost mixed with water. When plants are about 1 foot tall, just before vines begin to run, fertilize regularly with a high-nitrogen formula. Just before the blooming period, switch to a high-phosphorus formula fertilizer.
- If your first flowers aren’t forming fruits, that’s normal. Both male and female blossoms need to open. Be patient.
How to Grow a Bigger Pumpkin
- After a few pumpkins have formed, pinch off the fuzzy ends of each vine to stop vine growth and focus plant energy on the fruit.
- Pruning the vines may help with space and fruit formation. Pumpkins produce main vines (from the base/center of the plant), secondary vines from the main ones, and tertiary vines from the secondary vines. All may have flowers. Once the fruit has developed, prune the main and secondary vines to 10 to 15 feet and remove the tertiary vines, if desired. Bury the cut tips in the soil.
- Or, gardeners looking for a “prize for size” pumpkin might select 2 or 3 prime candidates and remove all other fruit and vines.
- As the fruit develops, turn them—with great care not to hurt the vine or stem—to encourage an even shape. Slip a thin board or stone or piece of plastic mesh under pumpkins to protect them from rotting on the soil.
- To grow a giant pumpkin, try ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant’ jumbo variety. Fruit can grow to 200 pounds on 25-foot vines. Plants need 130 to 160 days to mature, so start seedlings indoors, then thin to the best 1 or 2 to plants.
- Feed heavily and cultivate shallowly.
- Remove the first two or three female flowers to generate more leaf surface before a plant sets fruit.
- Allow one fruit to develop. Remove all other female flowers.
- Ensure the vine does not root down near the joints to avoid breakage.
- Learn more about growing prize-winning pumpkins!
Types
Every pumpkin has a best purpose. When choosing a pumpkin, think about what you want to do with it. All pumpkins are technically edible, but ornamentals are better for carving, and other pumpkins are best for cooking.
Miniature Pumpkins
Miniature pumpkins are very productive and easy to grow, sometimes producing up to a dozen fruits per plant.
- ‘Jack Be Little’, a miniature variety, is dual purpose. Store-bought shiny (painted) ones make an ideal decoration for a holiday table. Remove the seeds from farm- or homegrown specimens and then bake them for a tiny treat. Vine variety. Days to maturity: 90 to 100.
- ‘We-B-Little’ is an All-America Selection winner, and ‘Munchkin’ is another great miniature pumpkin.
Pumpkins for Carving
- ‘Autumn Gold’ is great for carving and decorating. All-America Selection winner. Vine variety. Excellent for jack-o’-lanterns. Days to maturity are generally 100 to 120.
- The larger ‘Magic Lantern’ and ‘Merlin’ are great for carving and decorating.
Giant Pumpkins
- ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant’ jumbo variety can grow to 200 pounds. Great for those who want to grow a ginormous pumpkin. Vines will spread to 25 feet, so space is a must. Days to maturity are 130 to 160, so plant early! Thin to the best one or two plants. Feed heavily but keep cultivation shallow. Remove the first two or three female flowers after the plants start to bloom so that the plants grow larger with more leaf surface before setting fruit. Allow a single fruit to develop and pick off all female flowers that develop after this fruit has set on the plant. Take care that the vine doesn’t root down near the joints to avoid breakage.
- ‘Big Max’, ‘Big Moon’, ‘Jack O’ Lantern’, and ‘Funny Face’ are some of the best giant pumpkins for carving.
Perfect Pumpkins for Pies
- ‘Sugar Treat’ is excellent for cooking and baking. Days to maturity are generally 100 to 120. ‘Hijinks’ and ‘Baby Bear’ are both All-America Selection winners and have sweet flesh for pumpkin pie.
- ‘Cinderella’s Carriage’ is also perfect for pies or soups.
- ‘Peanut Pumpkin’ also produces very sweet flesh and can be great in pumpkin pie or pumpkin puree.
Colorful Decorative Pumpkins
- ‘Jarrahdale’ has blue-green skin and makes for great decorations.
- ‘Pepitas Pumpkin’ is orange and green.
- ‘Super Moon’ is a large white pumpkin.
Gardening Products
Cooking Notes
- See how to clean a pumpkin for cooking.
- Don’t forget about the seeds! Roast them with salt or cinnamon for a tasty treat.
It will be fine .. Chipmunks take big chunks out of some of my pie pumpkins they will develop a scab .. I have 22 in my patch !!!!
my plant has several nice size pumpkins but there are insects on many of the leaves...look like little dark red larcae(?) and insects are tiny spidey looking..can find them in list of pests. TY... Illinois
The insects are probably a type of squash bugs. Removing the eggs on the underside of the leaves in early summer will cut back on adult bugs (but that's too late now). You can try to trap them under planks or newspaper in the garden as they like dark and damp places. You can also try to spray with neem oil (found in garden centers).
Hi, our pumpkins weren't planted this year, they're from rotted pumpkins that were thrown in our compost pile from last year. It's the middle of August and the vine has stretched everywhere, there are lots of flowers, but I don't see any pumpkins. Now, it looks as though the plant is dying. What should I be doing? What can I do to save it, or since there aren't any pumpkins, is it a waste of my time to try and save it?
Check to see if any of the flowers are female (they have a small bump below the flower). If you do have female flowers and no pumpkins you may lack pollinators. You can pollinate by hand but it may be too late in the season for the pumpkins to have time to mature.
Hello, I too am a first timer planter. I planted small starter plants on May 5. I have 8 orange pumpkins and 4 green ones. My question is: I've had a bout with powdery mildew and have trimmed a lot of leaves. Do my remaining pumpkins need leaves? I want these pumpkins for carving and I don't have a cool spot. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Leave the pumpkins in the garden as long as possible. You can pick the orange ones and put them in a shady spot outside. Pumpkins need leaves to grow flowers and fruit. If the vine is still green and the pumpkins are attached to the vine the pumpkins should be OK with just a few leaves.
Help! I am a first time, accidental pumpkin grower. My kids planted them, and the plants are taking over, and twisting around neighboring flowering plants that I love. They were planted in a fairly unoccupied corner, but the vine has grown about 15 feet along the base of many other plants, and there are vines climbing up and twisting around the other plants, some of which belong to my neighbors. Is there any way I can prune the pumpkin plants back at this point (were planted as seedlings around Memorial Day) without killing the entire vine? Otherwise I may have to pull the whole thing out, I'm so terrified what it might be doing to the beautiful plants around it. Many thanks for your advice.
You can prune the vine when it reaches ten feet past the last fruit you are leaving on the plant. It will not harm the growing pumpkins. Also, take the cut end of the vine and bury it.
This is Grandma's First Pumpkin Patch & the grandkids are loving watching the pumpkins grow. There are 5 pumpkins growing on the vines. I planted the pumpkin seeds May 18. Our first female pumpkin blossom to open was pollinated by bees July 26. It is has grown really fast & is now bigger than a basketball & the top is starting to turn orange. Squirrels have been bothering the pumpkin vines for the few past weeks & I'm worried they will bother the pumpkins next. I have been counting the days till harvest from the day the female blossoms were pollinated but none of the pumpkins is over 3 weeks old. Do you think they are turning orange because they are rotting? Anything I can do to save them? Thank You for any help you can give us. :)
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