How To Grow Pumpkins

Pumpkins are not only a tasty vegetable to eat, but they are also a lot of fun to grow. There are many varieties available, some more for show at Halloween and others would be perfect for making into soup, stews, casseroles and anything else you fancy. But if you are looking to harvest this delicious vegetable, you’ll need to know how to grow pumpkins. So I’ve put together lots of tips on how to plant pumpkin seeds and then caring for them as they grow.

How To Plant Pumpkin Seeds

Depending on when you want to start your seeds off, you can either plant them indoors or outside. If you are sowing your pumpkin seeds in April or May, it would be best to sow them indoors and allow them to germinate before hardening them off and moving them outside.

If you are looking up how to grow pumpkins outside, you’ll need to start the seeds off a little later. June-time is ideal as the soil will have warmed a little more than earlier in the year. You could use a cloche over the area where you have sown the seeds for a couple of weeks. This will give it best the chance to germinate successfully.

Choose your spot or pot. For indoor seedlings, you can use a 3-inch pot, in the first instance. If you are planting your pumpkin seeds directly outside, choose a warm, sunny spot that is sheltered from the wind.

You can grow pumpkins in a grow bag or large containers, depending on the variety. You’ll need to check how large your variety of pumpkin will grow. Also bear in mind pumpkin plants that are grown in pots or bags will need more regular watering as they will dry out much more quickly

Make a small hole in the soil, around ½ an inch deep and add two pumpkin seeds to the hole. It’s best to add the seeds sideways. There you go! That’s how to grow pumpkin seeds.

Planting Out Pumpkins

If you chose to sow your pumpkin seeds indoors, you’ll need to harden the plants off before moving them outside. You can do this by either moving them outside during the day and bringing them back inside at night for a couple of weeks or simply by moving the pumpkin seedlings into a cold frame for a couple of weeks. You can do this at the end of May and plant them out in June.

Watering and Feeding Pumpkins

As you would imagine, pumpkins need a lot of water. It’s recommended that you sink a pot by the side of each plant, that way the water will sink down to the roots of the plant and not around the stem. They’ll need watering regularly especially in hot spells and you can feed them with a high potash fertiliser every couple of weeks once they are bearing little fruits.

As you will be watering regularly and the fruits are quite weighty, pumpkins can be prone to rotting if they are left to sit in water. It’s a good idea to use something between the soil and the fruits. You could use a seed tray, old plate or even a floor tile.

How Long Do Pumpkins Take To Grow?

Pumpkins typically have quite a long growing period. This is why a lot of people will start growing them earlier by sowing the seeds inside in April or May. But there’s no reason you can’t plant directly outside in June if you live in a slightly warmer part of the UK. Pumpkins generally will be ready to harvest in around 3 – 4 months, again depending on the variety.

It’s best to leave your pumpkins to grow for as long as possible, but make sure you harvest them before the first frost arrives. This will allow the skin to harden. You’ll know they are ready as the skin will start to crack near the stem. They are then ready to be cut from the plant.

How To Grow Giant Pumpkins

You’ll need to make sure that you have the right seeds to start with. Good ones include Atlantic Giant or Wallace’s Whoppers. You’ll want to soak the seeds for a couple of hours before planting. Plant the seeds as before, but you’ll want to replant the seedlings into a bigger pot pretty much as soon as they are big enough to handle. They will grow quite quickly.

The trick with growing large pumpkins is to only continue to grow one fruit. Once the flower has been pollinated and the pumpkins are starting to grow, you’ll want to remove any later fruit, so that all the effort goes into making one giant pumpkin.

Assuming you are growing your giant pumpkins for Halloween. You may want to pick them a couple of weeks before the big day and then bring them inside to ripen them. Hope you’ve enjoyed the tips on how to grow giant pumpkins. I’d love to hear how big you’ve managed to grow them.

So will you be growing any form of pumpkins this year? Will they be purely for decoration or will you eat them too. I hope this feature on how to grow pumpkins has been informative and has given you an idea on how to start and going on from there, how to look after your growing pumpkin plant.

Read more posts in the Vegetables Category