When should I plant Pumpkins?

[IndyGerdener]

when should I plant pumpkins so they are ready for the fall?

[rainbowgardener]

Your seed packet should give you a days to maturity. If you don't have that, you can google it, if you know what variety you are growing. For different varieties it can be 85 - 120 days.

So if it says 100 days to maturity and you want pumpkins for Halloween, count back 100 days makes it mid July. Add a little time for sprouting and just as a general allowance (if they are ripe a bit early they can stay on the vine for awhile and keep for awhile if picked; if they are ripe late, nothing you can do to make them ripen faster). So that would mean planting about now.

120 day variety should have been planted in June. 85 day variety would get planted around the end of this month....

[jal_ut]

Indiana? Hmmmm, about May 5 should be good. Most pumpkins are around 120 days I think. When is your first frost? Pumpkin growing is all over when it freezes.

[rainbowgardener]

So just so I understand better James. If I accept your premise that most (common varieties of non-dwarf) pumpkins are ready in 120 days, 120 days from May 5 is Sept 5. OK, I get it that you can't count back from Halloween, if your first frost date is before that. My first frost date is Oct 15; Indiana isn't very far from me and the same latitude. If their first frost date is the same, why wouldn't they plant a month later, June 5 not May 5? And they always say don't plant squash/ pumpkins until the soil is well warmed up. May 5 seems a bit early for that.

[IndyGerdener]

I think I am going to plant them this weekend. I planted them 2 years ago when I planted my garden in May or June. The pumpkins were done and rotten by October. I am going to see what I can come up with now

[Northernfox]

I planted mine with everything else Mid May. I do have a little bit different of a growing season than you guys as I am in Canada they took awhile to get going. likely with your season being more intense you are probably closer to the package date. I think I have to add 20-40 days due to my more northerly location

I picked the ones I grew by accident last year mid October and just kept them in the basement where it is cool until Halloween.

[jal_ut]

So just so I understand better James. If I accept your premise that most (common varieties of non-dwarf) pumpkins are ready in 120 days, 120 days from May 5 is Sept 5. OK, I get it that you can't count back from Halloween, if your first frost date is before that. My first frost date is Oct 15; Indiana isn't very far from me and the same latitude. If their first frost date is the same, why wouldn't they plant a month later, June 5 not May 5? And they always say don't plant squash/ pumpkins until the soil is well warmed up. May 5 seems a bit early for that.

You may be right. since your frost date is a month later than mine, you could likely plant June 5 and get good pumpkins by frost. Here I plant pumpkins May 5 and they are just getting ripe about mid Sept when we get a frost. You see this is still six weeks until Halloween, and somewhere around 130 days from planting. It takes a little longer than the package says at this altitude.

If you plant any squash right now with 110 day or less completion time, you should be good for harvest at Halloween. That is supposing you don't get frost before October 31. A frost will stop the development of fruit.

You may do better right now to plant some 95-100 day pumpkins if you can find them.

rainbowgardener, do you grow pumpkins, and if so when do you plant them? Also do you find that they finish in the time the package says? Here at this altitude of 5000 ft, everything takes a few days longer than advertised. This is something we can only learn after several seasons of growing varieties. Each year is different too. We had an early warm up this season and my corn is much higher that usual at this time. Gardening is always a risk, and a new adventure each season. That is part of the fun.

[rainbowgardener]

Sorry, I was just talking from theory. I don't have room to grow pumpkins. I squeeze a lot of stuff in my limited spaces, but haven't managed pumpkins yet. That's why I was just asking questions and trying to understand.

[Northernfox]

hey no need for a lot of space dude!!!! just build some trellis and let them go vertical!! I sued the square foot gardening book to show me how.. pumpkins will vertical no problem. the design can hold a TON of weight and your pumpkins will grow up them no problem!!!!

if you want a little more info let me know!!!

[Northernfox]

gotta love sitting in your garden with a laptop surfing helpful gardener!!

[jal_ut]

gotta love sitting in your garden with a laptop surfing helpful gardener!!

Hey, if you have that much time, you can come on over and help me pull weeds.

FWIW, I just spread some N on my squash patch and turned the water on. Tomorrow it is supposed to be warmer again, mid 90s. You will be able to watch those squash grow.

[Northernfox]

I'll be right over. You are only like 1700km

[TheWaterbug]

I just replanted two pumpkins (Big Max) and a cantaloupe from seed on July 6th, so well see how they grow with a late start.

[TheWaterbug]

I just replanted two pumpkins (Big Max) and a cantaloupe from seed on July 6th, so well see how they grow with a late start.

These all just emerged, along with a bunch of these guys:


Grrrr.

I also have these on my month-old pumpkin plants. The plants are all doing fine; they have some scarring right at the soil line, presumably from bugs like this munching on them, but the stems seem to have hardened enough to protect them from further damage. I see the same thing every year.

The bigger of the plants are starting to send out vines, and I thinned the multiples down to a single plant per hill this morning.