Growing Pumpkins

Everything you need to know to grow this magical fruit

Have you considered growing your own pumpkins? If you have a garden or allotment patch I highly recommend it! A pack of seeds is relatively cheap and they grow quickly, being planted in May-June-and ready to harvest by Halloween, watching the fast growth of this vine is extremely satisfying!

Harvesting seeds from pumpkins you buy from the supermarket might seem tempting, however, it is hard to be successful this way, buying a packet of seeds from your local garden center gives you a much better chance at success.

When planting your seeds I recommend starting them in a tray in the house or the greenhouse and then plant them out when they are more established. This is essential if you suffer from slugs and snails, as we do here in the UK.

If planting straight outside, plant two seeds together, 6ft apart. In a few weeks, if both seeds have sprouted, weed out the weaker plant.

My most successful pumpkins have been bought as plug plants. However, the plug plants available are generally very traditional-looking, large orange pumpkins. If you want to grow more unusual varieties of pumpkins, I suggest starting them from seeds.

April to June depending on your climate. If in the UK, sewing seeds inside should be done in April and planting out in early June.

If you are at all limited in space, growing the pumpkin vine up a frame will help immensely. When growing pumpkins vertically I plant them 3ft apart as opposed to 6ft apart. This also means that your pumpkins will not be resting on wet ground!

If you have a large enough space, growing pumpkin vines horizontally and creating a real pumpkin patch for yourself is a fantastic idea. This way you will be able to grow larger pumpkins, as growing vertically the vine has to be able to hold the weight of the pumpkin. Once your pumpkin vines start to creep out sideways you will be able to help them establish themselves by burying the vines, which means…

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