Plentiful Pumpkins: Expert Advice for Which Types of Pumpkins to Grow

group of different kinds of pumpkins and squash
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Plentiful Pumpkins: Expert Advice for Which Types of Pumpkins to Grow

Learn Which Types of Pumpkins to Grow for Carving, Cooking, and Seasonal Décor

Many of us buy a pumpkin in October and carve it for Halloween. It's a tradition that goes back centuries and hard to resist. I thought originally that I could be thrifty and make pumpkin pie and roasted pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin I carved. Neither worked out very well. The problem: Specialized pumpkin varieties. Most pumpkin varieties do one thing better than anything else.

People have loved pumpkins for a long time. They are originally American plants, the first domesticated Mexico more than 5,000 years ago. Four similar species of Cucurbita, C. pepo, C. moscata, C. mixta and C. maxima give us pumpkins. Native Americans bred different kinds of pumpkins, for the seeds, for the flesh (not for carving, as far as I can tell, that was a European thing) and grew different species in different regions. Almost immediately after 1492, Europeans carried pumpkins all over the world. They were soon growing well in Europe, Asia, and North America. Different people liked different colors and shapes. Today, in addition to traditional orange pumpkins with ridges, there are smooth pumpkins, blue pumpkins, white pumpkins, long thin pumpkins. Many different looks, but also differences in taste, texture, and other characteristics. Consequently, if you want to make great pumpkin pies, grow a different variety than if you want to win the Biggest Pumpkin competition.

carving pumpkins surrounding a huge pumpkincarving pumpkins surrounding a huge pumpkin

These are the main groups of pumpkins:

Carving pumpkins. These are smooth and regular shaped, rounded, with a nice flat bottom and easy to cut through inner rind. Important varieties are Large Marge, Harvest Jack F1, New Moon Hybrid (white), Howden, and Montana Jack.

Decorating pumpkins. These are grown for their interesting shapes and colors, used uncut on tables, in yard displays, and other fall contexts. For example, Pumpkin Warty Goblin F1. Most decorating pumpkins also carve well.

Giant varieties will grow huge pumpkins in the same time as smaller ones and with little extra work, though they require lots of water and space. Almost all are descended from Howard Dill’s Atlantic Giant, bred for 45 years by Howard Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia.

For cooking pumpkin, select pie pumpkins, also called sugar or sweet pumpkins. Compared to pie sugar pumpkins, carving pumpkins are bland and stringy. Among best varieties for pies are Fairytale and Jarrahdale. Great for soups and similar dishes are Musquee de Provence, Kandi Korn Plus Hybrid, and Blue Prince Hybrid (really blue!). Even cooking pumpkins are specialized: great soup pumpkins can be a little moist for pies, giving off so much water as they cook that the pie crust becomes slightly soggy.

Pumpkin seeds, also called pepitas. All pepitas are pumpkin seeds, not all pumpkin seeds are pepitas. The varieties for seeds are called Styrian or Oil Seed Pumpkins. These lack the hull around the seed, so they roast or bake into tasty seeds for snacking. Popular varieties are Kakai and Lady Godiva.

Styrian or Oil Seed pumpkins are also crushed to make pumpkin (seed) oil. Pressing hullless pumpkin seeds into oil just needs a small seed press, and produces a very satisfying healthy oil. Varieties for oil production are the same ones used for roasted pumpkin seed such as Kakai and Lady Godiva.

Some varieties are recommended for more than one use:

Baby Bear and Wee-B-Little, although small, can be used for carving, decorating, cooked into pies, and the seeds roasted for pepitas. Connecticut Field OP is bigger and slower to mature, but equally versatile. Super Moon F1 (white) matures relatively quickly and is decorative, carveable, with tasty flesh and good seeds for roasting.

Warty Sunset F1, Orange Smoothie Hybrid, and Knucklehead Pumpkins are good decorating pumpkins, carve well, and are tasty for cooking.

Pepitas F1 Pumpkin has hullless seeds for roasting but also delicious flesh. They are also quite decorative.

Lil’ Pumpkemon, Orange Smoothie Hybrid, Casper (white), Jack-O-Lantern, Captain Jack and Ol’ Zeb are good for both carving and eating.

Cinderella pumpkins have mild sweet flesh for pies and soups, but are bright orange with a classical shape attractive as decorations.

Naked Bear has an excellent flavor for cooking and hullless seeds for roasting.

Lots of wonderful varieties to try!

You may see some of these varieties called a winter squash. Pumpkins are a special group of winter squash, recognized by consumers more than by botanists. If it looks like a pumpkin to you, use it as a pumpkin.

Growing Pumpkins

All the pumpkins grow well from seeds, once the soil is warm. Plant them directly into the ground after the last chance of frost has passed. They need strong sunlight and abundant water. They also need space. These are big sprawling plants with leaves sometimes 10 inches across. They scramble over the plants around them. If those plants were weeds, it is likely an improvement, if those were your tomatoes, you may be annoyed. If you are raising pumpkins for food, consider a short-season variety and plant seeds every 2-3 weeks, so there will be continuous ripening of the pumpkins until late fall. Plants with moderate sized fruit can be trained to grow along a trellis; the fruits will hang down.

The flowers are big, beautiful and edible, though if you eat them you will get no pumpkins. There are male and female flowers, the male flowers open first and provide pollen, so don’t be disappointed if the first flowers wilt without developing into fruits, since male flowers do not produce fruit.

In 85-120 days from planting, depending on the variety, the fruits ripen. Some will turn color when ripe, other varieties do not signal ripening with a color change. Keep the seed packet so you can recognize the mature color. Ripe pumpkins can be recognized because they harden, the stem dries out and they sound hollow. If the pumpkin is ripe, you will not be able to dent the rind (the skin) with a fingernail. As they ripen, the stem, feeding the pumpkin from the parent plant, will dry out, becoming hard and woody. Finally, ripe pumpkins sound hollow: tap and listen.

Pumpkin plants will continue growing until the first hard frost.

Harvest pumpkins when they are fully ripe. They will ripen a bit more after harvest, and will store in excellent condition for about three months. To harvest, cut the stem with a sharp knife, leaving it quite long (you can always cut it back, you can’t extend it). Wipe and dry the pumpkin, treating it with a dilute solution of bleach (10%) to reduce rotting. The bleach will evaporate, but all fruit and vegetable skins should be washed before eating them. Leave the pumpkins in the sun or a heated indoor space to cure for about 10 days. After that, store them in a cool dark dry place.

Note: The phrase F1 in the name means that these pumpkins are the seeds of a cross between two distinctive lines. These are the first generation after the cross. F1 is 1st filius, filius “son” in Latin, a term dating back to the beginnings of plant genetics. Because they’re an F1 cross, if you cross them—grow out the seeds of an F1—they will not be the same as the parents, as the characteristics of the two varieties of the original cross appear in some plants of the F2 generation but not others. For plants whose seeds produce plants very like the parents, choose heritage varieties.

Pumpkins are very diverse and versatile, from carving jack-o-lanterns, to pies and soups, to seeds to snack on, and much more. Grow them and see!

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