Your guide to growing perfect pumpkins
Celebrate winter squash season by planning to grow your own next year!
Pumpkins are everywhere! Nothing can match them as a symbol of a rich autumn harvest, or as a traditional spooky treat. They’re fascinatingly diverse, and now’s the time to start planning if you want to celebrate Halloween with something a bit different next year.
NOT JUST ROUND AND ORANGE
Pumpkins are just one of the winter squashes: large fruits that can be stored for use in winter and sometimes into spring. Pumpkins are generally not the best winter squash for eating though, with thin, rather fibrous, watery flesh. They need a lot of seasoning to make them tasty, which is why pumpkin pie is usually flavoured with spices and maple syrup. But their relatively soft skins and hollow centre make them the favouritewith carvers. Other winter squashes, such as the popular butternut, have much denser, nuttier flesh, but they also have much thicker and tougher rinds, which helps them to store longer, though they’re not so easy to carve. And, of course, we all love the rounded, bright orange pumpkins for Halloween. Pumpkins come in a huge range of sizes and different shapes, from monsters such as ‘Dill's Atlantic Giant’, too big to carve, to tiny fruit including ‘Jack Be Little’ that are best for table decorations. In between there are many that grow from 2-5kg (2-11lb) that are just right for lanterns. What they all have in common is the need for a sheltered, sunny spot and a good rich soil with plenty of water while they’re growing.
HOW MUCH SPACE DO THEY NEED?
Pumpkins are vigorous plants that need a lot of space. Although you’ll need to control their growth if you want fruit rather than leaves, if you have room most should be planted no closer than 1m (3¼ft) apart, and even then most will scramble a lot further! Their size can be restricted a little by pinching out growing tips while they’re young, to encourage branching and to keep them more compact. They’re a useful crop to grow under tall veg, such as climbing beans and sweetcorn, where they’ll help smother weeds. This is an adaptation of the ancient planting methods of the Native Americans, who planted the ‘three sisters’ – squash, beans and corn – together. Some of the more modern F1 hybrids, especially those with small fruits, have a more compact habit and can be planted at closer spacings but, in general, these are plants that need plenty of room.
GROWING IN CONTAINERS With care and attention, pumpkins can be grown in patio pots. This is fun for children as the plants grow alarmingly fast with huge leaves and fascinating tendrils, producing large, bright flowers and then the pumpkins. Use a large, deep pot, ideally 40cm (1¼ft) deep and wide, because these plants need lots of water and they’ll suffer if they dry out. Use a good quality multi-purpose compost and mix in some controlled-release fertiliser before you plant. If you can get it, this is one case where it will be beneficial to put some well-rotted manure in the base of the pot for the maturing plant to find and give it a boost. Put one plant per pot and be prepared to water every day when it’s growing strongly. Extra feeding will make a huge difference to your plant and its fruits and you should feed at least once a week – the more the better.
If you've an old compost heap that really needs to be forked through and used but you haven’t got round to it, this is a great place to plant a pumpkin or two, allowing them to ramble over the heap. The extra warmth of the composting heap and all those nutrients will guarantee healthy growth. HOW TO GROW THEM Pumpkins and other squash are frost tender and grow quickly so they shouldn’t be sown until late April or early May, about a month before the last frost in your area. If sown too early and kept in small pots that ‘check’ their growth they’ll suffer. Sow the seeds in small individual pots. Sow the seeds on their sides, about 1cm (½in) deep, water and keep in a heated propagator at about 21C (70F) and the seedlings should push through the compost in about a week to 10 days. Keep them moist but not sodden, and in good light. They’re ready to plant out when they have one true leaf expanded, in addition to the two large seed leaves, and another leaf showing. Because the weather outside will be changeable it can benefit the plants to cover them with a cloche or cut-down plastic bottle after planting, removing it after a week orso. Protect them from slugs and snails and water copiously in dry weather. Mulching the beds with compost or well-rotted manure will promote strong growth, and occasional feeding with a granular feed, such as pelleted chicken manure, is beneficial. Separate male and female flowers appear on the same plant. To ensure a female flower ‘sets’, remove a male flower and rub the pollen in the centre into the centre of the female flower – those with a baby pumpkin at the back of the bloom. Each plant will try to produce several fruits, though only the first to start to grow will become a giant. Once three to five pumpkins have set on a plant, others should be snapped off if they set because they won’t develop. Most varieties will be able to mature about three pumpkins. Those that have miniature fruits will produce up to 10 fruits. If you’re growing a giant only allow one fruit per plant. Continues over the page