Planting Pumpkins

37 chief · May 6, 2009

When is the best time to plant Pumpkins for Holloween? Does anyone here plant them to sell? I thought about trying it this year. Is there any brand of seed you will recommend. Thanks Stan

Rootsy · May 6, 2009

Depends upon variety and maturity... Generally... for a regular jack-o-lantern type pumpkin with a 100 - 110 day maturity you should be putting seed in the ground about mid to late June... This gives you an end of Sept / Begin Oct maturity in time to sell for the month of October... Smaller pumpkins generally have an earlier maturity in the 90 day range... Thus you can plant them later still...

Least that is how I do it up here in the North for fall farm stand sales.. I don't like having pumpkins ready in Late September... It is tough to garner the will power sometimes to hold off on sticking seed in the ground...

No matter what variety you plant... Find one with powdery mildew tolerance... Not sure how many you plan to put in but if you are buying the small packets from the store look for the Hercules variety.. Not sure if that is through Burpee or NK... Most of the PM tolerant larger pumpkin varieties (there are only a few) you have to buy in larger quantities... pumpkin seed isn't cheap...

Paulinkansas · May 6, 2009

This month is a good time to start planting them. They mature in 90-120 days. The first weekend of October is a big festival here in this town, so my goal to have them mature by the end of September. I've planted Jack-O-Lanterns with good success. This year I tried to get Aspen F1's, but every online source was sold out. So I'm planting Connecticut Fields and another variety that I don't remember at this moment. I sell ornamental corn with the pumpkins.

Dick L · May 6, 2009

Alway shot for the last week of May to the first week of June. Weather put me into the third week of June one year and there was about 10% that had green streaks in the orange. Funny thing was they sold faster than the solid orange ones. I sold self service out by the road.

John B. · May 6, 2009

Yes the third week here in May is a good time. It's not too hot and dry. They use to say the 4th of July but it can be hot and dry then and maybe not come up.

I found out also that spraying the ground first with some insecticide called Tempo will keep the bugs from eating the seed. Had trouble with that one year then starting spraying and good luck since. They would only eat the inside of the seed and leave the hull lay on top of the ground. I was told it was a small weavil that does this.

Rollie NE PA · May 6, 2009

I plant 1 lb of Howden Pumpkins. 115 day. 18.00 per lb.
I am also going to plant Connecticut Field this year. 110 day. 9.00 a lb. I have to put elec. fence around the fields because of the Deer.
Good Luck.

El Toro · May 7, 2009

There's a farmer in Ohio that raises pumpkins and he can irrigate them if its too dry. He has fields of strawberries too. Hal

yak651 · May 7, 2009

I plant mine memorial day weekend, usually are ready to pick the last week in Sept.

Planting Pumpkins

37 chief

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Rootsy

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Paulinkansas

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Dick L

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John B.

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Rollie NE PA

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El Toro

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yak651

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