Growing Pumpkins

Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Pumpkins

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Whether you use them for carving or cooking, pumpkins do not disappoint. Here’s how to plant, grow, and harvest pumpkins!

Did you know pumpkins have been grown in North America for almost 5,000 years? It’s a lot of fun to grow this American native. However, note that pumpkins do require a long growing season (generally from 75 to 100 frost-free days) so you need to plant them by late May in northern locations to early July in extremely southern states.

Wait until ALL danger of frost has passed and the soil is warmed, as the seedlings of this tender crop will be injured or rot. Find your local frost dates here.

That said, pumpkins are easy to maintain if you have the space.

Of autumn’s wine, now drink your fill;
The frost’s on the pumpkin, and snow’s on the hill.
–The Old Farmer’s Almanac, 1993

Planting

Selecting a Site

Pick a site with full sun (to light shade) and lots of space for sprawling vines. Vine varieties need 50 to 100 square feet per hill.
However, if your garden space is limited, no worries! Plant pumpkins at the edge of the garden and direct vine growth across the lawn or sidewalk. The vines will only be bothersome for a few weeks. You can also grow pumpkins in big 5 to 10 gallon buckets! Or, try miniature varieties.
Pumpkins are big, greedy feeders. They prefer very rich soil that is well-drained and not too soggy. Mix lots of compost and aged manure into the planting site before you sow seeds or transplant. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.

Planting by Seed

Pumpkins do best when the seeds are planted directly in the ground.
If your growing season is very short, seed indoors in peat pots about 2 to 4 weeks before last spring frost. Be sure to harden off before transplanting.
Wait until the plant soil is 70ºF or more before sowing seeds. Optimum soil temperature is 95ºF. Pumpkins are very sensitive to the cold.
Plant seeds in rows or “pumpkin hills,” which are the size of small pitcher mounds. With hills, the soil will warm more quickly and the seeds will germinate faster. This also helps with drainage and pest control.
Prepare the hills in advance with an abundance of old manure dug deep into the ground (12 to 15 inches). If you don’t have manure, loosen the soil and mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost
Plant the seeds 1 inch deep into the hills (4 to 5 seeds per hill). Space hills 4 to 8 feet apart.
Your plants should germinate in less than a week with the right soil temperature (70 degrees F) and emerge in 5 to 10 days.
When the plants are 2 to 3 inches tall, thin to 2 to 3 plants per hill by snipping off unwanted plants without disturbing the roots of the remaining ones.
In rows, sow seeds 6 to 12 inches apart in rows 6 to 10 feet apart. Snip off plants to thin to one plant every 18 to 36 inches.

Care

How to Grow Pumpkins

Use row covers to protect plants early in the season and to prevent insect problems. However, remember to remove covers before flowering to allow pollination by insects!
Pumpkins are very thirsty plants and need lots of water. Water one inch per week. Water deeply, especially during fruit set.
When watering: Try to keep foliage and fruit dry unless it’s a sunny day. Dampness will make rot and other diseases more likely.
Add mulch around your pumpkins to keep in moisture, suppress weeds, and discourage pests.
Remember that pumpkins are tender from planting to harvest. Control weeds with mulch. Do not overcultivate, or their very shallow roots may be damaged.
Most small vine varieties can be trained up a trellis.
Larger varieties can be trained upward on a trellis, too—though it is an engineering challenge to support the fruit—usually with netting or old stockings.
If your first flowers aren’t forming fruits, that’s normal. Both male and female blossoms need to open. Be patient.
Bees are essential for pollination, so be mindful when using insecticides to kill pests. If you must use, apply only in the late afternoon or early evening, when blossoms are closed for the day. To attract more bees, try placing a bee house in your garden.
Pumpkin vines, though obstinate, are very delicate. Take care not to damage vines, which reduces the quality of fruit.

Pump Up Your Pumpkins!

Pumpkins are HEAVY feeders. Regular treatments of manure or compost mixed with water will sustain good growth.
Fertilize on a regular basis. Use a high nitrogen formula in early plant growth. Fertilize when plants are about one foot tall, just before vines begin to run. Switch over to a fertilizer high in phosphorous just before the blooming period.
Pinch off the fuzzy ends of each vine after a few pumpkins have formed. This will stop vine growth so that the plant’s energies are focused on the fruit.
Pruning the vines may help with space, as well as allow the plant’s energy to be concentrated on the remaining vines and fruit.
Gardeners who are looking for a “prize for size” pumpkin might select the two or three prime candidates and remove all other fruit and vines.
As the fruit develops, they should be turned (with great care not to hurt the vine or stem) to encourage an even shape.
Place a thin board or heavy cardboard under ripening melons and pumpkins to avoid decay and insect damage.

Pests/Diseases

Squash bugs and cucumber beetles are common, especially later in summer. Contact your local Cooperative Extension for potential controls.
Aphids
Squash Vine Borer
Powdery Mildew
Anthracnose
Poor light, too much fertilizer, poor weather at bloom time, and reduced pollinating insect activity can negatively impact fruit set.

Harvest/Storage

How to Harvest Pumpkins

Your best bet is to harvest pumpkins when they are mature. They will keep best this way. Do not pick pumpkins off the vine because they have reached your desired size. If you want small pumpkins, buy a small variety.
A pumpkin is ripening when its skin turns a deep, solid color (orange for most varieties).
When you thump the pumpkin with a finger, the rind will feel hard and it will sound hollow. Press your nail into the pumpkin’s skin; if it resists puncture, it is ripe.
Harvest pumpkins and winter squashes on a dry day after the plants have died back and the skins are hard.
To slow decay, leave an inch or two of stem on pumpkins and winter squash when harvesting them.
To harvest the pumpkin, cut the fruit off the vine carefully with a sharp knife or pruners; do not tear. Be sure not to cut too close to the pumpkin; a liberal amount of stem (3 to 4 inches) will increase the pumpkin’s keeping time.
Handle pumpkins very gently or they may bruise.
Pumpkins should be cured in the sun for about a week to toughen the skin and then stored in a cool, dry bedroom, cellar, or root cellar—anywhere around 55ºF.
If you get a lot of vines and flowers, but no pumpkins, you need more bees in your garden to pollinate the flowers. Grow some colorful flowers next to your pumpkin patch this year and you may get more bees and butterflies!
The yellowish pumpkins will soon come handy to give the cows. They help out the fall feed, and if there is anything better for cows in milk we should like to know it.
If you’re saving seeds, they should last for 6 years.
Check out this video for tips on curing and storing pumpkins.

Recommended Varieties

Miniature pumpkins: ‘Jack Be Little’ miniature pumpkin variety, perfect for a holiday table. Vine variety. Days to maturity: 90 to 100 days. ‘We-B-Little’ is an All-America Selection winner, and ‘Munchkin’ is another great miniature pumpkin. Miniature pumpkins are very productive and easy to grow, sometimes producing up to a dozen fruits per plant.

Photo Credits: National Garden Bureau. On the left, ‘Munchkin’ miniature pumpkins. On the right, ‘Wee-B-Little’ miniature pumpkins.

Pumpkins for carving: ‘Autumn Gold’ great for carving, decorating. All-America Selection winner. Vine variety. Excellent for Jack-o-Lanterns. Days to maturity are generally 100 to 120 days.
Giant pumpkins: ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant’ jumbo variety can grow to 200 pounds. Great for those who want to grow a giant pumpkin. Vine will spread to 25 feet, so space is a must. Days to maturity are 130 to 160 days, so plant early! Thin to the best one or two plants. Feed heavily but keep cultivation shallow. Remove first 2 or 3 female flowers after the plants start to bloom so that the plants grow larger with more leaf surface before setting fruit. Allow a single fruit to develop and pick off all female flowers that develop after this fruit has set on the plant. Take care that the vine doesn’t root down near the joints to avoid breakage.
Perfect pumpkins for pies: ‘Sugar Treat’ semi-bush hybrid. Ideal for cooking and baking. Days to maturity are generally 100 to 120 days. ‘Hijinks’ and ‘Baby Bear’ are both All-America Selection winners and have sweet flesh for pumpkin pie. ‘Cinderella’s Carriage’ is also perfect for pies or soups. ‘Peanut Pumpkin’ also produces very sweet flesh and can be great in pumpkin pie or pumpkin puree.

Photo Credits: National Garden Bureau. On the left, ‘Cinderella’s Carriage’ pumpkins. On the right, ‘Peanut Pumpkin’.

Colorful pumpkins: ‘Jarrahdale’ has blue-green skin and makes for great decorations. ‘Pepitas Pumpkin’ is orange and green, and ‘Super Moon’ is a large white pumpkin.

Photo Credits: National Garden Bureau. On the left, a ‘Jarrahdale’ pumpkin. On the right, a ‘Pepitas Pumpkin’.

Wit & Wisdom

Pumpkin Trivia

Pumpkins were once thought to cure snakebites.
A slice of pumpkin pie before bedtime may help you to sleep.
Pumpkins have been grown in North America for almost 5,000 years.
Pumpkins are a nutritional powerhouse! Learn more about winter squash’s health benefits!
Cucurbits, such as pumpkins, are subject to an ongoing myth—that planting different family members or varieties will result in strange fruit. Actually, it is the seeds resulting from cross-pollination that are corrupted, so this is a factor only if you are planning to save seeds for next year’s planting.

Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkins have become a traditional Halloween decoration and treat in the United States.
Inscribe messages on growing pumpkins with a large nail. The letters will scar over while the pumpkins grow and will still be visible at harvesttime.
See 5 tips for picking the perfect pumpkin for carving!
Learn about the history of carving pumpkins.

Recipes

Cooking Notes

See how to clean a pumpkin for cooking.
Don’t forget about the seeds! Roast them with salt or cinnamon for a tasty treat.

Reader Comments

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Pumpkins in containers

I have never been successful growing pumpkins in containers -- they just stay small and produce nothing but the occasional male flower. Do you know what I can be doing wrong? I have used rich soil and keep them watered. I can grow them in the garden, although I usually get only one per plant as my growing season is short.

5 gal pot

I planted my jack-o-lantern pumpkin plant in a 5 gallon pot, and it's doing great! But I've read conflicting info online about pot size necessary. Is 5 gallon ok? Or should I risk moving it to a larger pot?

how big a container?

Generally speaking, pots for pumpkins are recommended as the bigger the better. Some say 10-gallon is the minimum for a small pumpkin. with large cultivars going into 12- to 15-gallon (20- to 24-inch diameter) pots. Moving it or not is a tough call. It’s great to hear that it’s going well, but it’s early in the season. If you decide to transplant don’t wait too long; and when/if you do, disturb the roots as little as possible so it will not need a lot of time to settle into its new pot. Good luck!

Thanks! I think the plant is

Thanks! I think the plant is too large to transplant. But I had the idea to put a trough-like planter next to it so the secondary roots have some extra nutrients to draw from. Not sure if that method has been tried before

Is this statement for Arid

Is this statement for Arid Zone environment?

PUMP·KIN

How do you pronounce pumpkin?

Pumpkin flowers.

My neighbour told me I had to take the flowers off the vine. As she comes from a farming stock I believed her before thinking it through. Now I only have 2 pumpkins. Was I right in my thinking she was lying?

Pumpkin flowers

Removing some flowers makes the remaining pumpkins bigger. Experiment!!!!

I am thinking of planting pumpkin in w corn...

I am thinking of planting pumpkin in with corn or planting watermelon with corn. Any suggestions?

Pumpkin and Corn

Happily, both squash and melon are considered planting companions for corn; they help each other thrive. For suggestions on how to grow squash and corn together, please see our “Three Sisters” article: https://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash

Growing Jack o lanterns Pumpkins in Costa Rica

I buy this beautiful and amazings seed of pumpkins so my childrens and I can celebrate halloween this year with a real pumpkin and grow them in our yard
but we are from Costa Rica
in our Country we just have two seasons HOT SUMMER and RAINY WINTER
I`m so worry because I write that the pumpkins to be ready for halloween most be plant on july but they need a hot weather and is gonna be raining in here any advice or recommendation will be good receive THANK YOU

Pumpkins in Costa Rica

We do not have any experience with growing pumpkins in Costa Rica so we can only offer a few ideas: Plant in a large container that can be protected from excess rain (move it, shield it). But rain usually brings clouds, which cancel sunlight, and your plant needs at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. See the response below: If temperatures are suitable—in the 70s—perhaps you can plant and harvest before the rains come.

Here is a link from college student who studied growing “tropical pumpkins” in Costa Rica; she may be a source of information: https://www.unh.edu/inquiryjournal/spring-2017/exploring-diversity-tropi...

And, you might contact local farmers in your area and see if they have any advice or experience. We hope this helps!

Pumpkin light cycle

Just wondering if pumpkins have a set life cycle or if bloom is effected by a time/light cycle. Having a friendly contest with friends and wondering if I can get a few month head start

pumpkin life cycle

TIming, sunlight, and where you plant pumpkins can make a difference. The air and soil need to be warm enough for the seeds to germinate. The vines needs at least six hours of sunlight. And the plants need space to spread out their vines. Choose air, not oven, dried seeds (oven drying can remove too much moisture). In most cases, pumpkins need between 80 and 130 days to become mature. Instead of direct sowing (setting seeds in-ground) you can start your seeds indoors (check you last frost date https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates), but you will need to acclimate them to the outdoors (harden them off) before transplanting them. Hope this helps!

Pumpkin Bed Dimensions?

We have limited space in our yard and we are thinking about next year's crop and we want to do pumpkins. We have an area that gets sun all day, so that's where we want the bed. What would you recommend the size of the bed be if I sow just one hill of seeds (4-5) and then choose only three healthy vines to take off? I'm more concerned of how deep the bed should be, but an overall dimension (HxWxL) would be fantastic. We want the pumpkins to be Jack-o-latern Pumpkins if that matters when selecting or building a bed. We understand that the vine needs space to grow, but how big of a bed for the root system need in order for the vines to grow full and healthy? Thank you. -Shawn

Jack O Lanterns

I grew Jack o Lanterns this year. My mound I put in 2 seeds for each mound. I have 2 mounds and my backyard has a pretty small size. Without measuring my backyard, I did this based off of the seeds (2 for each mound). When the vines grew out, I have neighbors so I had to send the vines back into it's area. I had to make the area round so it won't crawl into the nieghbor yard...now I have 6 pumpkins. I didn't use a bed...

Jack O' Lantern pumpkins

One seed source says that the spread of ‘Jack O’ Lantern’ pumpkins is 6 feet. The hill can be about 8 to 10 inches high and 12 inches in diameter. If your raised bed does not allow plant access to the ground soil, then you should have it at least 24 inches deep; 36 inches is better. Otherwise, if the pumpkins can sink their roots into the ground, 12 inches or so high for the bed edges should be fine.

London, U.K.

Loving all the tips - we are growing pumpkins in hanging baskets, here in London. The first fruit have just appeared and we are pruning off other blossoms and buds to concentrate the plants energies into growing the pumpkins - the race is on to beat the weather and get them big and ripe before Hallowe'en!

Stink bugs

Last season the stink bugs attacked my pumpkins late in the growing season. Anything I can do this year to prevent a repeat concern? Thanks!

Pumpkins,cantalope,watermelons

I had a great crop of these for my first year. The Old Farmers Almanac was very helpful. I even bought a paperback edition for this year. I will use these techniques to continue my planting. I was surprised with the amount of space each plant needed. Although I was theilled at my city back lawn needed so little mowing. They were the talk of my block. Now neighbors are in on the program. Next year we plan to have a Fall Block Party with our crops. Be sure to have rows of flowers for your bees & butterflies. That was beautiful also.maybe I will plant in front area also to show case colors we can eat.

Pumpkin Success

We’re happy to hear that you had such a successful growing season! Keep up the good work!

Pumpkin

Hi! My pumpkins are orange already with much time left before Halloween. Did I plant them too early or are they still growing? I saw your comment about harvesting and placing them in basement. How long will they typically keep in this spot? Thanks so much.

Ripe Pumpkins?

Try the methods listed in the Harvest/Storage section, above, to determine whether your pumpkins are fully ripe. If they are, you can cut them off the vine and cure them in a sunny spot for several days. Here’s a video about Curing and Storing Pumpkins.

Pumpkin Shelf Life

With a nice consistent, cooler temperature, pumpkins can last many months inside your home. I literally have pumpkins last 6 to 8 months inside each year. Most of which sit out on our front steps until the temperatures begin to dip near freezing. If you are storing pumpkins inside, just make sure there isn't excessive moisture accumulating between the bottom of the pumpkin & the storage spot. Places like concrete floors in basements often need a buffer of material to allow airflow... Wooden pallets work great for this.

leaves gone

someone went into my garden and pruned the vines, few weeks later decided to remove leaves and more vines. I had lots of pumpkins started but were still a month away from oct. do my pumpkins have a chance or will they rot now?

dog ran through

Last year, after Halloween, when the carved pumpkins were starting to turn to mush, I put about 5 of them along the back of my house, chopped them up, and put dirt on top. Well, right now my backyard is almost gone because there are so many pumpkin plants...about 17 feet each way. Anyway, I have a very large dog, 124lb cane corso, who decided to chase a rabbit all over in the pumpkins. Now the vines are smashed,turning yellow, and look just horrid. Somehow the ends of all the vines are still producing more pumpkins and the ones already turning orange still look okay. Is there anything I should do or just leave itsince they're still producing? I want as many pumpkins as possible so I can donate them to the school for their Halloween party for the kids.

Pumpkins

Hi Andrea,

There’s not much to be done to fix the vines that were uprooted or smashed. Since pumpkins are still being produced and ripen, just leave them be!

pumpkins in row photograph permission

May I please use your photograph of the pumpkins in a row in a circular for a 4-H extension activity at Langston University.
Thank you for your consideration.

Pumpkin Photo

Yes, the photo at the top of this page is in the public domain and may be used however you like! Note that the other pumpkin photos on this page are from the National Garden Bureau, however.

Pruning

I am growing a giant pumpkin and it is about 2 feet wide now but the vine it is on goes about 5 feet past it... can I cut the vine past the pumpkin or will it hurt the pumpkin ? The vine is like 1-2 inches thick now.