If you grow a pumpkin underneath your corn then now's a good time to shovel on some extra compost, or add fertilizer. Both these plants really like lots of fertilizer.
Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
Pumpkin
A variety of Cucurbita pepo
How to sow pumpkin: Direct seed indoors (and transplant outside after seedlings are hardened off) or outdoors
Sun requirement for pumpkin: Plant in Full Sun
Pumpkins are squash cultivars that are round to oval in shape with thick, slightly ribbed skin that varies from deep yellow to orange in color. Their flesh ranges from yellow to gold and has large seeds. Like other members of the Cucurbitaceae family, they grow on sprawling vines. Different varieties of pumpkins are grown for food or decoration.
- 32
- plantings
- 21
- harvests
- 8
- seed packets
Pumpkin facts
Lifespan
Days until maturity
110–140 days median of members' seed packetsGrown for
fruit harvested 21 timesCrop 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 pumpkin, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 9°C and a shortest growing cycle of 80 days at its best temperature, about 1280 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 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 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
How members grow pumpkins
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Varieties of pumpkin
blue Hubbard pumpkin
buttercup pumpkin
butternut squash
NZ heritage butternut pumpkin
Chuck's winter pumpkin
crown pumpkin
cupola pumpkin
green chestnut pumpkin
Hopi grey pumpkin
ironbark pumpkin
kamokamo
Papapa kamokamo
Ruatoria kamokamo
Tolaga Bay kamokamo
Queensland blue pumpkin
triamble pumpkin
Plant pumpkins with
Photos
Pumpkin crops
Pumpkin plantings
Pumpkin harvests
Pumpkin seeds
Video
Where pumpkins grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about pumpkins
How to save seeds
by shiny,
Beans, peas and corn: remove husks and allow seeds to dry out – this may take a couple of weeks, then remove casings and store.
Pumpkins and melons: seeds need to be washed and set aside to dry for a week or so before …
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Wanted (Australia): potimarron seeds
by Skud,
Potimarron is a small (1-2kg) pumpkin/squash that will grow up a trellis. It's available from Diggers but before I make an order for just one packet of seeds I was wondering whether anyone in Australia had …
pumpkins
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Another week, another heap of things planted
by Skud,
I really should've got started on winter planting sooner, I think. Everything in the garden is in a lull right now. Although people near me are still blogging about the last of their crops from summer, all we have still going are some chillis and some basil. Lots of things …
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Who's planted pumpkins
- shiny Aro Valley · Wellington, NZ
- Diego Mi Jardín
- valgrind butternut squash Vegetable Garden
- unhackerguard Garden
- CloCkWeRX butternut squash 04 - Rosewater Backyard Left · Rosewater, South...
Pumpkin harvests
-
shiny harvested 1.
over 6 years ago
-
shiny harvested 2.
over 7 years ago
-
shiny harvested not specified.
over 7 years ago
Find pumpkin seeds
- marco_b will trade locally.
- shiny will trade locally.
- Storm will trade nationally.
- View all pumpkin seeds 8
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Cucurbita maxima Duchesne
| 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 | heavy, medium, light, 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), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about pumpkins
Resources outside Growstuff.