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 20°C and 32°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 90 - 120 cm apart
  • Harvest in 15-20 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Sweet Corn
  • Avoid growing close to: Potatoes
  • Pumpkin on vine

A large trailing plant with yellow, bell-shaped flowers, pumpkin is frost tender. Most varieties will take up a lot of room. Grow them at the edge of your garden patch so that they can spread away from other vegetables. Butternut produces small to medium pear-shaped fruit with deep orange flesh. Buttercup are small to medium round pumpkins with dark green skin. There are a number of large pumpkins, some round and flattish - good for storage and eating - others will produce the "Cinderella coach" type giant round fruit which are not such good eating.

Harvest when the vines die off and the pumpkins' stalks are dry. Leave a small piece of stalk attached to the fruit to prevent damp causing rot. The fruit can be stored for months in a cool airy place. In some parts of New Zealand, they are stored on shed roofs.

Pumpkins sometimes need hand pollination if the fruit are not setting well or die off after starting to grow, try picking a male flower (straight stem) and gently brushing pollen inside female flowers.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Pumpkin

Cut up, remove the skin and roast with other vegetables or meat.

Young crisp shoots with young leaves can be cooked and eaten - stewed in coconut milk they are popular in Melanesia. Remove any strings and tough parts and stew until tender, or cook as a vegetable in boiling water 3 - 5 minutes.

Your comments and tips

21 Feb 23, Debbie (New Zealand - temperate climate)
I planted 3 pumpkins in October, all different varieties. One has not produced any female flowers and the other two have any just produced two little pumpkins this month (February) . They are healthy plants with an abundance of male flowers. My qustion is will they ripen before it gets too cold?
22 Feb 23, (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
Pumpkins take about 5mths.
28 Apr 22, Anne Elizabeth Mence (New Zealand - temperate climate)
when is the right time to plant pumpkin and cucumber seedlings. Not long had my vege garden and keen to get started.
02 May 22, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Go to the top of the page and it will tell you when you can plant for your climate zone.
28 Feb 21, Daniel Chai (New Zealand - temperate climate)
in my garden now many pumpkins are sprouting, even if it is not the season. Maybe after eating pumpkins the dregs were dumped there. what shall i do? Do I remove them to save the space for other veges or leave them?
10 Mar 21, Orlene (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
Howdy, If you can afford to give them that space e.g you dont need to use it for something else I say keep them in, might as well give it a go and see if you can get another harvest. I am currently growing Golden Nugget Pumpkins, they are a bush variety so can handle a bit lower temp/less light hours. One thing you will need to watch out for is powdery mildew as the plants tend to stay wetter for longer in the morning and the evening.
01 Mar 21, (New Zealand - temperate climate)
There is not much sense growing something out of season. You may produce a crop that has little or no produce. Grow some thing that is in season.
13 Oct 20, Mark hillhouse (New Zealand - temperate climate)
When I was a child, my grandmother used to grow pumpkins adjacent to a vary large rock area. She used to trail the vines onto the rock and that was where the pumpkins developed. I don't have a large rocky area to do this so I was wondering about spread some sort of rock aggregate on the ground and trail the vines onto that. Anybody done this before? Cheers
16 Oct 20, (New Zealand - temperate climate)
You don't need any special ground to grow pumpkin on. They grow in bare paddock for farmers.
12 Apr 20, Annie (New Zealand - temperate climate)
When is the best time to plant pumpkin seeds please? We live on the Kapiti Coast.
Showing 1 - 10 of 85 comments

Gina, We too have been wondering when to harvest a Pumpkin "buttercup" as is looks large, green & with yellow in a couple of places (like its picture). We cut it and then read that the stalk needs to turn brown before harvesting. So we have taken it too early it seems. Haven't cut it open yet to see it its got any yellow flesh. We will now leave the others that are growing till stalk is brown.

- Sooze

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This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. GardenGrow is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department. The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
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