News Article for July 13, 2009 from LSU AgCenter County Agent Kenny Sharpe of Livingston Parish:
The Fourth of July makes many of us think about watermelons, but it should also remind us that it is time to begin planning for pumpkins to be ready by Halloween.
Each variety will vary in days from planting to harvest, but in general pumpkins will take 90-100 days to reach maturity. I would suggest you leave a little room for error and plant pumpkins by July 20 but certainly by the end of July.
Pumpkins produce vines and require a lot of room to grow. Usually you will plant a row and skip a row. The seeds are planted four to five per hill and then thinned to two to three. I would space the plants 4-5 feet apart for vining varieties and 2-3 feet for the semi-bush or compact varieties. Seeds should be planted between ¾” and 1½” deep.
Fertilize pumpkins prior to planting with 3-5 pounds of 8-8-8 fertilizer or the equivalent per 100 feet of row. Side-dress when the vines begin to run with 1 pound of ammonium nitrate per 100 feet of row.
Pumpkins come in an assortment of sizes. You should plant the variety that will yield a pumpkin the size that you want. If you are interested in bragging rights to the largest pumpkin, you will want to plant one of the giant varieties that will usually range in size from 25-80 pounds. The giant varieties include Atlantic Giant, Big Max, Big Moon, Full Moon and Prize Winner.
The large sized pumpkins range in size from 10 to 30 pounds. The large varieties will include the old standard Connecticut Field, Cinderella, Sorcerer Appalachian, Aladdin, Pro Gold 510, Gold Standard, Howden and Biggie.
Medium sized pumpkins are those varieties in the 5 to 10 pound range. Varieties to try would include Small Sugar, Spirit, Lumina, Gold Rush, Gold Bullion, Howdy Doody and Lantern. If space is limited, the semi-bush varieties would include Big Autumn, Frosty, Neon, Magic Lantern and Aspen.
For those of you who like to decorate with the miniature pumpkins (less than 1 pound), try Jack-Be-Little, Baby Bear, Munchkin and Lil Ironsides.
Remember that pumpkins are in the cucurbit family, which is the same one as melons, cucumbers and squashes. All cucurbits have separate male and female flowers, and bees are required to move pollen for proper fertilization. A common problem is to have all male or all female flowers at first and, of course, there is no fruit set. This makes gardeners and farmers a little anxious. Do not fear, within 10 days of seeing the first flower, you will have both male and female flowers and then you will start to see little pumpkins growing. (If you think this sounds like the birds and the bees, you are half right, it’s only about the bees!)
For more information on this or related topics, contact Kenny at 225-686-3020.