[Dredge]

I have NEVER even had a garden, but we were thinking of maybe growing some pumpkins, but I have no clue where to even start. I would love some pointers.


Thanks in advance.

[Raven]

Lots of water and lots of room. The vines really can grow quite long. When I grew mine I watered daily, giving them a good soaking once a week. I also used fish emulsion and they seemed to like that. The flowers must be pollinated for the fruit to grow, but that is usually not a problem. They also like lots and lots of sun. I never worried about the PH level in my soil or anything like that and I was able to grow some nice pumpkins. For some reason the ones I grew were also a lot easier to carve than the ones I bought. I might take a stab at growing some again next year. The flowers are really quite pretty and can actually be eaten, although I never tried them.

[Dredge]

So how deep should I bury my seeds, when should I plant them, and How many seeds should I plant for a decent harvest?

[Raven]

To plant the seeds, form small hills of dirt about three feet in diameter. Place four to five seeds in the middle of the hill, keeping them about six to eight inches apart. Cover them with at least an inch of soil. When the pumpkins begin to form, place a board under each one. This will prevent them from rotting. To keep the pumpkin round, rotate it occasionally. This will help it retain its shape as it develops. I have read you can plant them anytime from May 15th to June 15th. I think I planted mine the beginning of June. Some sites recommend starting the seeds indoors first, I just dumped mine in the ground. The only thing to worry about is any frost. Of course, in the south we dont usually have to worry about a late frost. They really are not that hard to grow, just need to water a lot. If you are buying seeds there are a lot of different kinds. The ones I bought said "jack-o-lantern" on them.

[SaneInsideInsanity]

as well as since there a vine you can also grow them cage style as odd as it ma sound they take up less room and you can possition your pumpkins so the grown down out of the cage not only will they form pretty well perfectly since they arn't touching anything they're lots of air circulation to stop soft spots , the downfall when they get big you may need to put some support underneath (stockings or panty hose sligs) so the stem doeosn't break....
I really need to put a garden in my new house i havn;t grown any in years....to make the cage you simply take some garden wire...siimalar to chicken wire and form a lage cylandier, lay it on it side in the garden i make mine about a yard in diametre, as your pumpkin tendrils/vines grow train them up the sides of the cylander as the bloom try to get the fruit to start growing on the inside...as you don;t want all your blossom to form fruit it take too much out of the plank when you have about 3 pumpkins or 4 going nicley on a plant, pluck the other suckers and flower to make sure all the plants energy is going into the few fruit on the vine....
hope this helps
oh here is another good article i dug up
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stori ... -all-fall/

[Dredge]

I cant wait to try this. Cant I just use the seeds from my pumpkins this year?

[Artex76]

you sure can. find a kind you like and stick with it. been using the same seeds for years in mine. I live in the city and grow some goods pumpkins.

[SaneInsideInsanity]

you can save them let them dry naturally and them sotre them in a brown paper bag in a cool dry place, i bought some seeds the first year from my local nursary just to make sure i had ones that would grow well in my area they were a giant variety loved them....i grew them from when i was 12-17 about

[CombichristGirl]

my mom and dad plan on taking out our flower bed this coming year. i to plan on replacing that with pumpkins to save some money lol.
how many pumpkins tend to grow on a vine i assume a vine is a seed or can 1 seed have more than one vine?