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grow pumpkin at home

Grow Pumpkin at Home Guide

Champion of the Underdog » Tropical Gardening » Grow Pumpkin at Home Guide

Growing Pumpkins in QLD

Grow pumpkin at home today. In the tropics, plant your seeds late in the wet season, or early in the dry season, water regularly, cheer on the bees and in a few months you can harvest.

Pumpkin is a member of the Cucurbitaceae or squash family. Pumpkin originated in Central America thousands of years ago. Hence, they are no stranger to the tropics.

There are over 150 separate species of pumpkin plants. Consequently pumpkin comes in every shape, colour, and size you can imagine.

Growing Jap Pumpkins in Australia

We grow the Jap or Japanese Pumpkin which does quite well in the tropics. Other varieties of pumpkins you can grow well in tropical areas include the Queensland Blue, Butternut and Buttercup.

How to Grow Pumpkins in Australia

How to grow a ton of pumpkin

How to grow pumpkin at home: Location and Soil

Pumpkins grow over a large area, so make sure you have enough space. It is a really good idea to have a trellis for your pumpkin vines to grow up.

Because they grow so vigorously, a trellis will give them some direction and for the urban gardener, a trellis helps you to grow vertically, which allows you make the most out of your limited space.

Pumpkin does well in a good enriched soil. So add plenty of well-rotted compost and/or manure. In the tropics, it is a good idea to plant into raised mounds, so the soil will not remain too wet.

Grow Pumpkin from Seed

Time needed: 3 minutes

How to grow pumpkin from seed.

  1. Collect seed:

    Use the pumpkin seeds you have collected previously. If you are a new grower, the simplest and cheapest way to grow pumpkin is from the seeds of a supermarket bought pumpkin.

  2. Confirm site:

    When your seeds are ready to plant, you can start them out in potting mix using seed trays and transplant them later. However, we plant ours directly into prepared ground where we want them to grow.

  3. Sow:

    Plant your pumpkin seeds 2.5cm (1in) deep. One vine will cover around 3 metres, but always over-sow. If more seedlings germinate than you need, simply thin them out.planting pumpkin seeds

  4. Sun and Water:

    Make sure you have planted your seeds or seedlings in an area that gets full sun, where you can water regularly.

  5. Prune:

    Pinch out the ends of rambling stems to help contain growth (unless you have heaps of space).

Grow Pumpkin

How to grow pumpkin at home: Pollination

You can hand pollinate your pumpkin, but if you have natural pollinators in your garden they will do the work for you.

Do bees pollinate pumpkin?

Provided you have plenty of bees around and a number of flowering pumpkin plants, pollination will occur naturally.
pumpkin flower

Watering

Watering regularly is important, as most of your pumpkin growing will take place during the ‘dry season’ in the tropics. However, pumpkins do not like sitting in a puddle, so take care to get the balance right.

Fertilising

Apply a rich compost and/or well composted manure to the soil before planting. Fertilise regularly after your pumpkin seedlings emerge, but do not use a fertiliser too high in nitrogen. If you use too much nitrogen your pumpkin vines will become large, but not produce fruit.

How to grow pumpkin at home: Pests and Diseases

Hot and humid conditions make downy mildew a problem in the tropics. However, you can combat this by not overcrowding your pumpkins and by crop rotation.

An additional control method is to cut off old leaves that are yellow and dying to prevent mildew spreading from them to new un-diseased leaves. Neem oil is one organic solution you can apply. It will help to combat certain insects and fungal diseases.

Pruning 

You don’t prune pumpkin for the sake of it. Thus you prune pumpkin for a purpose. Indeed this purpose may be encouraging growth, redirecting the plant, or removing disease or damage. Work out your objective and prune accordingly.

Never prune off more than 30 per cent of your leaves at one time.

Eating Pumpkin

Health Benefits

The reason we all grow pumpkin at home is to enjoy the harvest. In addition, consuming pumpkin has real health benefits.

Weight Loss

A number of studies have indicated that eating more plant foods such as pumpkin reduces the risk of obesity and obesity related diseases.

Fibre

Pumpkin are a wonderful source of fibre. Indeed, this is important as more fibre in the diet has been shown to help with weight loss, digestion and bowel function.

Immune System

Pumpkin is full of nutrients that will boost your immune system. Indeed these nutrients include vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Antioxidants

Furthermore, pumpkin contains beta carotene, which is an antioxidant that can help avoid some cancers and reduce the likelihood of some heart diseases.

Prebiotics

Pumpkin contains prebiotic fibre which helps beneficial microbes to populate the gut and bowel.

So, in light of these health benefits, now you know how to grow pumpkin at home, why not get planting?

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