200+ Organic Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkins are very thirsty plants and need lots of water. Water 1 inch per week. Water deeply, especially during fruit set. When watering: Try to keep foliage and fruit dry unless it’s a sunny day. Dampness will make rot and other diseases more likely.

• Use row covers to protect plants early in the season and to prevent insect problems. However, remember to remove covers before flowering to allow pollination by insects.
• Bees are essential for pollination, so be mindful when using insecticides to kill bugs or fungicides to control fungus. If you must use, apply only in the late afternoon or early evening, when blossoms are closed for the day.
• To attract more bees, try placing a bee house in your garden. Or grow colorful flowers near the patch. 
• Be aware that poor light, too much fertilizer, poor weather at bloom time, and reduced pollinating insect activity can result in poor fruit set, shape, and excessive blossom drop
• Add mulch around your pumpkins to keep in moisture, suppress weeds, and discourage pests.
• Side-dress with aged manure or co most mixed with water. 
• When plants are about 1 foot tall, just before vines begin to run, fertilize regularly with a high-nitrogen formula.
• Just before the blooming period, switch to a high-phosphorus formula fertilizer.
• Remember that pumpkins are tender from planting to harvest. Control weeds with mulch. Do not overcultivate or the pumpkin’s very shallow roots may be damaged.
• Most small vine/fruit varieties can be trained up a trellis.
• Larger varieties can be trained upward on a trellis, too, though it is an engineering challenge to support the fruit, usually with netting or old stockings.
• If your first flowers aren’t forming fruits, that’s normal. Both male and female blossoms need to open. Be patient.
• Pumpkin vines, though obstinate, are very delicate. Take care not to damage vines, as this can reduce the quality of fruit.

How to Grow the Perfect Pumpkin

• Pinch off the fuzzy ends of each vine after a few pumpkins have formed. This will stop vine growth so that the plant’s energies are focused on the fruit.
• Pruning the vines may help with space, as well as allow the plant’s energy to be concentrated on the remaining vines and fruit.
• Pumpkins produce main vines (from the center of the plant), secondary vines from the main ones, and tertiary vines from the secondary vines. Each type may have flowers.
• Once fruit has started to develop, prune the main and secondary vines to 10 to 15 feet and remove the tertiary vines, if desired. Bury the cut tips in soil.
• Or, gardeners who are looking for a “prize for size” pumpkin might select the 2 or 3 prime candidates and remove all other fruit and vines.
• As the fruit develops, they should be turned (with great care not to hurt the vine or stem) to encourage an even shape.
• Place a thin board or heavy cardboard under ripening melons and pumpkins to avoid decay and insect damage.

To grow a giant pumpkin, try the ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant’ jumbo variety. Fruit can grow to 200 pounds on 25-foot vines.

• Plants need 130 to 160 days to mature, so start seedlings indoors, then thin to the best 1 or 2 to plant. 
• Feed heavily and cultivate shallowly.
• Remove the first two or three female flowers to generate more leaf surface before a plant sets fruit.
• Allow one fruit to develop. Remove all other female flowers.
• Take care that the vine does not root down near the joints to avoid breakage.