Pumpkins, Are For Fun, Food & Funds

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Pumpkins are for laughter — for Jack-O-Lanterns and Halloween — during the cool, overcast days of autumn. 

Pumpkins are for pies . . . all winter long.

And pumpkins are for extra cash: their sales bring in dollars when most other money crops are gone. A fellow homesteader put it this way: "Pumpkins are our ace-in-the-hole for raising Christmas dollars. Ole Jack brings in extra funds just in time to take advantage of the countless pre-holiday sales." T he big, beautiful, bright orange fruit is easy to grow, too. It needs about 120 days to reach maturity so, in most areas, plantings around May 20th will bring in crops during late September . . . before damaging frosts and just in time for Halloween.

Gardeners in areas where the growing season is very short should start seeds indoors three to four weeks before the weather's right for outdoor planting. Roots must not be disturbed so be sure to start your pumpkins in containers that can be set directly in the ground . . . peat pots or peat pellets, for example.

When seeding pumpkins outdoors, don't tire yourself by spading up every square foot of soil. Only the area where the roots will grow needs special preparation. Simply turning the earth in hills about two feet in diameter and spaced three feet apart should be quite sufficient, although I find that digging lots of manure or compost into each mound definitely helps produce larger, more perfect specimens for the Halloween market.

When I seed pumpkins with other crops, I leave a three-foot, plowed and implanted border for my future Jack-O-Lanterns and pies. Once I've planted the fruit every three feet down the strip, the rangy vines usually spread out from the ribbon of tilled soil and deposit their bright orange treasures—high and dry—on the adjoining unplowed ground. Pumpkin vines, you'll find, wander happily over rocky terrain, across lawns and even through weeds.

Place about three or four pumpkin seeds an inch deep in each hill and, when the young plants are well-established, put a thick mulch around them to keep down weeds that would otherwise rob the developing vines of moisture and food. This mulch should be tight, mat-like (packed grass clippings are fine) and stuffed closely around the stalks to shut off any passages through which squash bugs might gain entry to the pumpkins' roots. The squash bug is a persistent, plant-killing pest and the big ones like to live around the base of the vines and come up to lay eggs on the underside of the leaves.