Growing Pumpkin

Cucurbita sp. : Cucurbitaceae / the gourd family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
                  P P P

(Best months for growing Pumpkin in New Zealand - cool/mountain regions)

  • P = Sow seed
  • Easy to grow. Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 68°F and 90°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 35 - 47 inches apart
  • Harvest in 15-20 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Sweet Corn
  • Avoid growing close to: Potatoes

Your comments and tips

01 Apr 12, Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate)
Make sure that you leave a small piece of stem attached to the pumpkin when you harvest .
28 Mar 12, kate (Australia - temperate climate)
mine plant does the same and it is in the ground. Sometimes the flowers haven't even opened before the baby pumpkin turns yellow and falls off. I would love to know an answer if anyone has one :)
12 Mar 12, Erni W (Australia - temperate climate)
I have Queensland Blues, which are self sown from seeds we through out with the veggie peelings last year. They have a huge number of male flowers, but few female flowers. How can I increase the ratio of female flowers? (Prune, Feed, How??) Erni
01 Mar 12, Nick (Australia - temperate climate)
Hey Tess, have you tried hand pollination?
23 Feb 12, Tess (Australia - temperate climate)
My Pumpkin plant, grown from seedling, is growing madly for the past 2+months however it hasn't flowered. What am I missing?
19 Feb 12, Sharon (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Hi Kev, I have tried milk with a few drops of natural liquid soap and that works quite well, if there only a few spots on each leaf. I have also read that neem oil is good, but haven't tried that yet. This year I had little time so I just cut off the worst affected leaves and treated the rest and that seems to have worked fairly well. But, I am no expert, just my experience so far. Good luck, Sharon
08 Feb 12, STELLA (Australia - temperate climate)
my pumpkin vine is growing in a vegie box and it looks healthy with lots of male and a few female flowers but after each female flower blooms even after trying hand pollination the flower bottom becomes yellow and eventually drops .is there any way i could prevent this and sucsessfully grow pumkins??..and also that the same veggie box has three more pumpkin plants growing..is that the causeof it??
05 Feb 12, stella (Australia - temperate climate)
my pumpkin vine is growing in a polystyrene box and it looks healthy with lotsof maleand a few female flowers but after eachfemaleflower blooms even after trying hand pollination the flower bottom becomes yellow and eventually drops .is there any way i couldprevent this and sucsessfully grow pumkins??..and also that the same veggie box has three more pumpkin plantsgrowing..isthat the causeof it??
02 Feb 12, paul (Australia - temperate climate)
just wondering i bent my stem to my pumpkin and cracked it is there any remedies first time grower thanks
08 Feb 12, Catherine (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I Paul, I trod on one of my vines a few weeks ago. I was going to cut it off, but then forgot. I noticed it the other day, and the vine has just kept growing. he place where I trod on it is still visible as a few splits in the otherwise thick vine, but it has hardened up and there are flowers and leaves growing on the rest of the vine anyway. So you can probably just leave it and it will work out. If it is the actualy stem to a pumpkin fruit, not just one of the vines, I'm not sure, but it might do the same thing.
Showing 661 - 670 of 825 comments

I am just south of Townsville and planted Qld Blue pumpkin seeds in early April in good soil with correct PH levels. Plenty of space to run and good sunshine and watered daily. The plants grew well for about 6 weeks producing masses of mostly male flowers?? I had plenty of bees doing their job, but still only got two pumpkins that didn't reach maturity before the plants died off about 2-3 weeks ago. We did have a couple of 6deg nights but nothing lower. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Cheers

- LynnStinten

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