Grow Your Own Pumpkins for Halloween – But Sow Right Now in Early June so They Ripen in Time
Fancy decorating your porch with a homegrown jack o’lantern this year? Here's everything you need to know.
Picking out a Halloween pumpkin from a store or farm is such fun, so just imagine how exciting it will be to grow your own! And early June is the exact right moment to sow seed if you want your pumpkins to mature just in time to carve jack o’lanterns for 31 October.
Growing pumpkins for Halloween is straightforward, even if you’re a beginner gardener, and everything you need to know to get great results is right here. You can direct sow seeds straight into the ground where your plants are to grow, too, so there’s no faffing around with hardening off seedlings. And while it’s true that pumpkins are typically big plants, there are compact varieties small enough to grow in any garden, even in a pot.
As long as you prepare the planting hole properly, you’re diligent about watering and feeding, and not dead-set on growing record-breakingly big fruit, then it’s fine for vines to trail over gravel or hard surfaces rather than soil, too – so you don’t need to give up too much garden space.
And just wait till you see those first pumpkins starting to swell – you’ll be as happy as a kid out trick or treating! Ready to grow your own pumpkin for Halloween? Here’s what to do…
1. Choose Your Pumpkin Variety
These are my recommendations for the best pumpkin varieties to grow at home.
Best Pumpkin for Easy Carving
The classic variety to grow to carve jack o’lanterns is – you guessed it! – ‘Jack O Lantern’. This is a reliable grower and you can expect good-sized, well-rounded vibrant orange fruit of around 18-24 pounds. The vine grows 12-18 inches tall and spreads to 72 inches, and takes 110 days to mature. The skin is straightforward to carve and the flesh is super-tasty in a pumpkin pie, so don’t throw away what you scoop out.
Best Pumpkin For a Fun Jack o'Lantern
This ghostly pale variety is ‘Lumina’ and they’re fun to paint as well as carve. Or why not press a few flowers over the summer then glue them onto the pumpkin skin for beautiful table decor? 'Lumina' pumpkins are smaller, weighing around 10lb, and faster to grow, maturing in 80-90 days. This vine also grows 12-18 inches tall and spreads to 72 inches, and has tasty flesh.
Best Pumpkin for a Small Garden or a Pot
‘Cherokee Bush’ has a bushier habit, growing 14-24 inches high and, though vines spread to 48-58 inches, it doesn’t sprawl like some other varieties. That makes it an excellent pumpkin to grow in a pot, though it’s going to need to be a big container such as this resin half-barrel planter from Lowe’s. If you’re growing a few plants, then a cheaper option is to use fabric grow bags such as these from Amazon, or a small raised bed like this, also from Amazon. Whatever you choose to grow it in, capacity needs to be a minimum of 15 gallons, preferably more.
Maturing in 100-110 days, ‘Cherokee Bush’ grows lots of smaller pumpkins around 5-8 pounds, and the yellow flesh is tasty in a pie.
Best Pumpkin for Unusual Fall Decor
‘Sanchez’ has wonderfully lumpy skin so it’s a super witchy, warty addition to Halloween decor. Pumpkins grow to 4-6 inches across but you’ll get plenty as this vine grows to 12-18 inches high and spreads 120-144 inches. It matures in 95-105 days.
With long vines and small fruit, ‘Sanchez’ can also be grown vertically in a raised bed planter with a sturdy trellis such as this from Amazon. You’ll need to tie in the vine to the trellis – cut-to-length reusable Velcro plant ties, available from Amazon, are the easiest option. You may also need to support the fruit, and retired pantyhose is the very best material for this job!
2. Pick a Sheltered Sunny Spot
Pumpkin plants need warmth and sun, so choose a spot that gets at least 6 hours of sunshine a day and is sheltered from cold winds.
Make sure you have enough room for the vines to spread, though it’s fine to coil them around and keep them in place with bamboo canes pushed into the ground. Pumpkin vines do put down additional roots wherever the stems touch soil, to access additional nutrients and water, but as long as you provide a good supply of those, it’s okay to let them stretch over gravel or paving. Just watch that water doesn’t pool beneath or stems and leaves get scorched by the heat from paving, though sliding a plank of wood underneath easily solves such issues.
3. Prepare the Soil
Pumpkins are hungry plants and while they need plenty of moisture, they hate to sit in soggy soil. Ensure your soil is both fertile and well-draining by digging a hole that’s around a foot wide and deep and mixing compost – homemade or shop-bought such as this Life Cycle Organic Compost from Amazon – into the soil.
If you’re growing your pumpkins in a pot or planter, fill with any multi-purpose potting mix such as Back to the Roots All-Purpose Potting Mix, available from Amazon.
4. Sow Seeds
Now we’re in June, the soil temperature is warm enough to sow seeds directly into the ground. Pumpkin seeds are big and easy to handle, so simply push them into the soil, around an inch deep. They do have a tendency to rot, so sowing them on their side will help prevent this.
Sow two or three seeds for each plant you want to grow, keep moist and, once they sprout in a week or so, carefully pull out the weakest so you’re left with the strongest seedling. Do pay attention to planting distances recommended on the seed packet as these are big plants.
Pumpkin seeds need temperatures of at least 60°F to germinate so, if you live in a colder zone or have an exposed garden, staking plastic cloches such as these from Amazon over helps keep conditions cozy. You can make your own by upcycling 2-litre clear plastic bottles, cutting off the bases and pushing your homespun cloches into the soil.
5. Protect From Pests
Slugs and snails love to snack on juicy young pumpkin plants so because you’re sowing directly outdoors, you need to have some protection in place. I find the most effective method is to provide food that these slimy critters like even more, and set out cucumber slices to catch them.
Squash vine borers and cucumber beetles are also a threat, and the best way to guard against these is a floating plant cover such as this from Amazon. You’ll need to remove this once your plant starts flowering to allow bees to pollinate the blooms, so fruit can set.
6. Water Well
Unsurprisingly, these big plants need plenty of water. It’s important to water the soil rather than getting leaves wet, so a handy aid is to sink a plant pot into the ground alongside the spot you sowed your seeds. Direct the hose into this when watering and moisture will be delivered straight to where it’s needed most. This also helps you know just where the plant center is, as that can get confusing once there's a lot of foliage.
Mulching the soil will help to conserve moisture and keeps out weeds that will compete for water. Use homemade compost or a natural mulch such as Back to the Roots Organic Premium Mulch, available from Amazon, and keep it away from the central stem to avoid rotting.
7. Feed Plants in a Container
If roots have restricted access to nutrients in a planter, then they’ll need feeding. The time to start feeding is when you first spot baby pumpkins starting to swell at the base of flowers. Don’t worry if you get a few flowers first that don’t turn into pumpkins. Pumpkin plants grow male and female flowers. It’s the male flowers that appear first on long thin stems, followed by female blooms closer to the vine – and it’s these females that will grow into pumpkins once bees have transferred pollen over from the male flowers.
Feed with a water-soluble liquid plant food that’s high in potassium, such as this pumpkin fertilizer from Amazon, every two weeks. There’s no need to feed pumpkin plants growing in the ground as long as you prepared the soil well, and aren’t trying to grow enormous fruits.
8. Care for the Fruit
Pumpkins sitting directly on damp soil are likely to rot, so place a piece of wood, a tile or a nest of straw beneath them if necessary. These fruit need plenty of sun to ripen so, once pumpkins reach full size, remove any leaves that are shading them.
9. Know When Your Pumpkins are Ready to Harvest
Your pumpkins are ready to harvest when their skin has lost its sheen and hardened, so press a fingernail into the skin to test: if you can scratch the fruit, leave it to ripen a while longer. Tap the fruit with your knuckles, too – a ripe pumpkin will sound hollow.
As long as you keep the stem intact when you harvest your pumpkin, it will keep well, so don't worry about harvesting early. Bring your homegrown pumpkins indoors to a sunny greenhouse or conservatory and let them cure for a couple of weeks, and the skin will harden further so they can be stored for up to six months.
And you know what that means, don't you? You can have homegrown pumpkins for Christmas as well as Halloween!
