How to grow perfect pumpkins

Now is the perfect time to plant pumpkins…. the seeds take 3 months to grow, and Halloween is 3 months away!

Here are my Top Ten Tips for perfect organic pumpkins:

1. Choose a sunny place for your pumpkins, with at least 6 hours of full sunlight.
2. The spot needs to be at least a 4′ x 4′ area of soil.
3. First, dig the soil a little to loosen it up so the roots will be able to grow healthily.
4. Add organic compost to the soil and mix it in with a garden fork or your hands.
5. If your soil is not great, also add some organic fertilizer, like Dr Earth or manure.
6. You can plant the seeds directly into the ground now, but they’ll get a head start if you plant them in pots first, and then re-plant the seedlings when you can see a pair of leaves.
7. Cover the soil with a mulch of some kind, like straw, alfalfa, or wood shavings.
8. Keep the soil moist… make sure you water the plants every day, around 6 p.m. is best.
9. When the plants grow flowers, notice which flowers have a bump at the bottom. As the bumps grow, choose your favorite one or two and snip off the others so that the plant can concentrate on making one or two super special pumpkins.
10. Put the little pumpkins on a stage of some kind, like a low box or some straw, so the underside of the fruit doesn’t get wet and mushy.

It’s totally fun and easy for children to grow them. If you have any questions as they grow, drop me a line

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This was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 10:30 am by Ysanne Spevack. To link here, use the permalink. You can follow any responses to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed.