- Plant your pumpkins inside of dirt mounds in widely spaced rows about 120 days before you plan to harvest them.
- Water your pumpkins once a week, or when the soil is dry to the touch. Give them enough to make the soil damp, but not so much that it floods.
- When the pumpkins are bright orange and hard, cut them off at their stems and let them sit in the sun for 1 week. Then store them in a cool, dark place.
Soil Prep and Seed Germination
Plan to plant your pumpkins 120 days before harvest. Pumpkins take at least 100 days to reach full maturity, so think about when you’d like to harvest them, and plant your seeds about 120 days before then. In addition, pumpkin seeds don’t germinate in cold soil, so plan to plant them after the chance of frost has passed, usually around mid to late May. Plant a first crop in late May, then a second crop in early July to ensure you have mature, healthy pumpkins ready to harvest around and through Halloween.
Choose a spacious planting spot that receives 6 hours of sun each day. Pumpkin vines need a good amount of space to grow and creep, so choose a site with at least 20 or 30 square feet (1.9 or 2.8 m) of room. In addition, select a site that receives at least 6 hours of sun, and which has well-draining soil that doesn’t have standing water after it rains. Select somewhere a bit apart from other plants in your garden, since pumpkins tend to stifle most other nearby plants. Alternatively, plant pumpkins in large, 2–3 feet (0.61–0.91 m) containers to save space or grow them indoors.
Weed the planting site and prepare well-draining soil. Manually weed the site thoroughly, using a trowel and your hands to pull them out by the roots. Till a balanced fertilizer, such as a 19-19-19 formula, into the soil (according to package instructions). Then, amend your soil to increase drainage by mixing in compost or garden gypsum according to the instructions on the compost or gypsum packaging. In addition, test your soil’s pH with a test kit, then raise it or lower it to around 6-6.8. Use garden lime (according to package instructions) to raise soil pH, and mix in extra compost to lower pH
Choose a pumpkin variety that suits your needs. Pumpkins come in a surprising number of varieties, and different varieties serve different purposes. Some are great for carving, others make fabulous pies, and certain varieties are grown purely for decoration. Their growing methods are largely the same, so pick your variety according to your wants. Edible pumpkins, or pumpkins for pies: Sugar Treat, Peanut Pumpkins, New England Pie, Winter Luxury. Large decorative pumpkins great for carving: Autumn Gold, Magic Lantern, Jack-o-Lantern, Howden Field. Small decorative pumpkins, often called “mini pumpkins”: Baby Bear, Spooktacular, Jack Be Little.
Germinate your seeds 3 weeks before planting to give them a head start. While pumpkins grow just fine from store-bought seeds, or seeds harvested from other pumpkins, germinating these seeds into sprouts can help them root and thrive when they eventually are transplanted. Bury your seeds 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep in containers that are 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, using standard, damp potting soil. Keep the soil damp (wet to the touch, but not flooded) for 3 weeks as the sprouts grow). Keep the containers in a warm, sunny spot to encourage germination. Transplant the sprouts into your garden when they’ve grown 3-4 leaves.
Planting Pumpkins
Space pumpkins in rows about 10 ft (3.0 m) apart. If your pumpkin variety grows along creeping vines, space the hills in the same row 5 feet (1.5 m) apart, and space the rows 10 feet (3.0 m) apart for large pumpkin varieties. Space smaller varieties or “bush-type” pumpkins in rows 8 feet (2.4 m) apart.
Create several 4–5 inches (10–13 cm) tall mounds 8 feet (2.4 m) apart. Gather nearby dirt into a small “hill” into which you’ll plant your seeds. Make each hill about 1 foot (0.30 m) across. This elevates the seed above the rest of the soil, helping the sun warm and germinate it more easily.
Plant 2-3 seeds 1–2 inches (2.5–5.1 cm) deep in each mound. With your thumb, create 2-3 small holes about 2–3 inches (5.1–7.6 cm) apart in the center of the mounds. Then place a single seed into each small hole, and cover them with soil. It doesn't matter which end of the seeds points up. If the seeds are viable, they will grow either way. If you're planting germinated seedlings, dig a hole in the mound large enough for the root ball, then place the seedling so that the top roots are level with the soil, and cover them with dirt. Only plant 1 seedling per mound.
Water and cover the planted seeds with compost or landscape fabric. Saturate each mound with water, until it’s wet to the touch but not pooling or flooding. Then, to keep the soil warm and promote germination, cover each hill with a square of black landscape fabric. Pin the fabric to the soil on each side of the hill, and cut a hole about 6–12 inches (15–30 cm) wide where the seeds will sprout. Alternatively, cover each hill with 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) of compost to warm the soil and add nutrients. If you composted the soil before planting, or are planting from germinated seedlings, you can skip this step. It won’t hurt to do it anyway, though! With proper care, the pumpkin seeds will sprout in about 1-2 weeks.
Caring for Pumpkins
Give the pumpkins about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water per week. Water the pumpkin plants any time the soil appears dry. Thoroughly saturate the soil when it feels dry to the touch. Water the plants only once or twice a week, and give them plenty when you do (until the soil is damp but not pooling), rather than giving them a light water every day. Watering deeply but infrequently helps the moisture reach deep down to the roots. Water in the morning to encourage soil retention and prevent fungus. Avoid soaking the plants’ leaves. This encourages the growth of a fungus called powdery mildew, which can cause the leaves to wither and the plant to die. When the pumpkins themselves begin to grow and turn orange, decrease the amount of water you use by about half. Stop watering entirely about a week before you plan to harvest the pumpkins.
Add a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer once the pumpkins send out vines. Till a 34-0-0 mixture nitrogen fertilizer into the soil around the base of the plant. Refer to the instructions on the fertilizer packaging to determine how much to use, but in general add about 1 pound (450 g) of fertilizer per 25 square feet (2.3 m) of soil. Take care not to let the leaves touch the fertilizer, as the heavy nitrogen content may burn or damage them. Only fertilize the soil twice: once when preparing the soil, and again when you spot vines.
Prune away extra pumpkin flowers and pull up any weeds. In order to grow big, healthy pumpkins, pull up any weeds as you encounter them. Weeds divert nutrients away from the pumpkins. In addition, once the fruits are at least 6–8 inches (15–20 cm), cut away all but the largest one, and cut any additional buds to divert nutrients to the single fruit. To grow for numbers rather than size, select 2-3 fruits to keep, and cut away the others. Note that male flowers—those that contain pollen—often fall off on their own. Place a bit of cardboard under the fruit to keep it raised above the soil, preventing a condition called “soil rot” that deteriorates the fruit.
Control pests and diseases manually, if possible. In order to make sure your plants produce healthy pumpkins, monitor them throughout the growing process. If you notice powdery molds on the leaves or fruits, apply plant-safe fungicide according to the instructions on the packaging. Spray insecticidal soaps on the plant to combat most insects, like aphids. Also watch for these other problems: Check the pumpkin leaves and blossoms for beetles, which eat plant tissue and ultimately kill the pumpkin plant. Scrape them off the plant a few times a week. Add a 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) layer of mulch around your pumpkins to keep weed pressure down and conserve soil moisture. If your pumpkins begin to wilt prematurely, or even rot, remove the plant from the soil and dispose of it in a plastic garbage bag. These plants are most likely diseased, and cannot be treated.
Harvesting and Storing the Pumpkins
Cut the pumpkins off the vines when the stem hardens. Harvest your pumpkins in October, when their stems have hardened and the fruit’s exterior is firm, with a rich orange color, and the vine has withered some. Use a pair of garden shears or a lopper to snip the pumpkin off the vine about 3–4 inches (7.6–10.2 cm) from the base of the pumpkin, where the stem attaches to the fruit. If the pumpkins are yellow or soft and spongy to the touch, give them another week before checking them again. If you harvest them too soon, they won't keep for more than a few days before spoiling. Avoid breaking or snapping off the stems entirely, which causes the pumpkins to rot.
Let the pumpkins sit in the patch for 1-2 weeks after harvesting. Before you bring those pumpkins indoors, keep them outside, right where you snipped them, for 7-14 days, or until their rinds develop a firm texture. This helps preserve the pumpkins, allowing you to store them for even longer. Place the pumpkins on a raised pallet to keep them above the soil and out of reach of pests.
Store the pumpkins in a cool, dry place to preserve them. Keep your harvested pumpkins away from humidity, damp, and direct sunlight to keep them ripe and presentable for up to several weeks. A basement or cellar is ideal. They do not need refrigeration. Apply a mild chlorine rinse before storage to discourage mold and fungi. Mix of 1 cup (240 mL) of household chlorine bleach and 5 gallons (18.9 L) of cold water, and use a spray bottle to spritz the pumpkins with it.
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