Last edited on November 02, 2026. View history
Cupola Pumpkin
A variety of pumpkin
How to sow cupola pumpkin: Direct seed indoors (and transplant outside after seedlings are hardened off) or outdoors
Sun requirement for cupola pumpkin: Plant in Full Sun
A New Zealand heirloom from Ahipara, sent in by Vince Eales, whose family had grown it for over 100 years after it came via South Africa. Known overseas as Tahitian squash and in the north as Dali pumpkin. The long necks are good sliced and baked, the seed end suits stuffing, and the deep orange flesh is very sweet, like butternut. Transplant at 1 m.
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Cupola pumpkin facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For cupola pumpkin, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 10°C and a shortest growing cycle of 80 days at its best temperature, about 1200 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your cupola pumpkin will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing cupola pumpkins
- Sow seeds in pots 4 weeks before planting out
- Dig a pit and fill it with compost 2 weeks before planting out
- Harden off the seedlings 1 week before planting out
- Set or refill beer traps for slugs and snails at planting out every week
- Water deeply at the base 1 week after planting out every week
- Mulch around the plants 3 weeks after planting out
- Hand pollinate the female flowers 6 weeks after planting out
- Pinch out the vine tips 10 weeks after planting out
- Lift fruit onto a tile or board 6 weeks before first harvest
- Check leaves for powdery mildew 8 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Cut pumpkins with a long stalk at first harvest
- Cure the pumpkins in the sun 1 week after first harvest
Plant cupola pumpkins with
chives
Video
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Cucurbita moschata Duch ez Poir
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Violales Cucurbitaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | vine |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
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