How Do You Grow Pumpkins From Fresh Seeds?

The same technique applies to all types of pumpkins and if you like squash, we're planting two types today and they're a little bit unusual the first one is Potimarron which is a rich-tasting pumpkin and we really like that one it's also called Red Kuri so it depends whether you're in France or Japan determines what the names going to be.

The second pumpkin that we're going to plant is Galeux d’Eysines. And that's a French variety again it's got a really rich taste and we like to grow these two because they're great for roasting they're great for making pumpkin soup. Pumpkins like a sunny position and good rich soil good rich soil simply means that you go to dig in some well-rotted compost and a bit of cow manure before you plant your pumpkins.

There are lots of thoughts on pre-soaking pumpkin seeds and you can do this if you want to, we're going to soak half of our pumpkin seeds and not the other half and we'll show you the difference in germination to soak them simply get the seeds put them into some lukewarm water and leave them there for about six hours then they're ready to plant.

The seeds are easy to plant we simply plant them on this side and then water them planting distance is going to depend on what type of pumpkins are growing, some are long trailing types and you'll need to plant them at least a meleter part of the two that we're planting don't grow quite as big so we'll be able to plant at about half a meter apart.

When we put the seeds in we put a few more in than that so they are a bit closer and that's simply because if some of them don't germinate we've got enough pumpkins for our needs if they all germinate we'll simply remove some and plant them somewhere else in the garden. Here we are about five days after we planted our first pumpkin seeds the ones that have come up first are the ones that we soaked, about three or four days later we're back again and the pumpkins that we didn't soak are starting to germinate so it's only about four days difference in germination speed however we do find that we get better germination rates with the ones that we've soaked. 

Once the seeds have germinated and they reach a reasonable size we're going to fertilize them with a nitrogen-based fertilizer this is going to spring them into life and get them going we'll only use the nitrogen fertilizer once,  after that, our fertilizer will consist of a liquid seaweed and fish emulsion fertilizer and a little bit of blood and bone once the pumpkins get going.

We will mulch around them with a fine mulch just to help keep the soil moist. You'll also find that if you've been putting your pumpkin scraps from the kitchen into a compost bin sometimes when you take that compost and put it into the garden the seeds will germinate and that's fine you can dig those up and you can plant them somewhere else in the garden that's how easy pumpkins are to grow.

And here's one that's popped up in our tomato patch and if you watched our video on green manure crops you will have seen that this is the very spot that we were digging in some added compost as well as the green manure,  we'll take that one out and plant it somewhere else in the garden. 

These are the mature leaves on our pumpkins and if you look closely you can see some flowers are about to form,  let the fruits fully ripen before you harvest them when you harvest them always leave a handle or a little bit of stalk on each pumpkin leave them out in the Sun for a few days after you've harvested them just so that they harden off before you take them inside and store them in a cool dry place.  

That's it for growing pumpkins from seed for more information on growing all sorts of vegetables.