How to Grow Pumpkins
The most successful of farmers can grow any type of pumpkin they want. However, some people will advise you that pumpkins are just about the easiest type of plant to grow. Pumpkins are large plants, which often makes them a hard plant to mess up when you are learning how to grow them. But whether you are an expert grower or you are just starting out, there is always the chance that you may get some pumpkins that flop out half-way through the season while other pumpkin vines do very well and finish out the season in strong, ripe pumpkins.
The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about growing pumpkins is probably the Halloween time period when everyone thinks about creating Jack O’ Lanterns and Thanksgiving time when people are always feasting off of pumpkin pie. However, there is more than one basic type of pumpkin. Which one is the typical Jack O’ Lantern pumpkin? Some of the pumpkin varieties are the Connecticut Field Pumpkin, Baby Boo, Big Max, Cinderella, and Atlantic Giant. The Connecticut Field pumpkin is the typical pumpkin many people think about and this is the type that many people learn how to grow. When you want to start growing pumpkins the first question in your mind should be where and when you will grow them. While expert pumpkin farmers know this automatically, for other people it may not come so easily.
growing pumpkinsBut growing pumpkins in very warm weather is what should be done. In fact, pumpkins should not even be planted until the temperature starts reaching the mid 70s during the daylight. Pumpkin vines love the sun and they need a lot of it to grow big pumpkin plants. One think that you want to make sure you do when learning how to grow pumpkins is to grow them on a mound or some other type of hill so that they’ll not only receive enough sunlight (6 hours is recommended) but also so that the pumpkin plants and vines will have more than enough room to spread out. Pumpkin plants are very apt to sprawling out all over the place, however, they grow so low to the ground that you do not need to separate them from the rest of your garden if you don’t want to. Furthermore, if you’re worried about the way that you place the pumpkin seeds in the ground, have no fear at all! Pumpkin seeds will magically grow right-side up no matter what position they are planted in.
When you’re in the process of planting your pumpkins, though, a moat should be dug around the whole pumpkin patch because pumpkins are the type of plant, contrary to most plants, that love water and need a lot of it to grow successfully! When you cover up the pumpkin seeds you want to be sure that you pack the soil securely, but no so much so that the seed is suffocating. When it comes to watering, using a watering can in the very early stages of growing should be sufficient because you don’t want to knock the soil off of the pumpkin seeds. But as time goes on you’ll be able to water them more heavily each time.
At the climax of the pumpkin growing season (usually between 115 and 140 days), you should be able to have healthy and large pumpkins for everyone to enjoy. If growing pumpkins was easy enough for you to do then growing them successfully each year should be a simple venture where you’ll be able to grow them larger and healthier every time!