When to sow pumpkins?
- Botanical name
- Cucurbita maxima
- Family
- Cucurbitaceae
Pumpkins are sown outdoors from May to June, 2.5 cm deep. They germinate in 8 to 15 days. They are harvested from September to October.
Pumpkins are annual plants. The edible parts are the flowers and fruit.
In cold soil the seed rots before it germinates. Sowing outdoors therefore waits until the bed warms up. A sowing indoors starts earlier and the fruit then has more time to ripen before the first autumn frost, which kills the plant.
Bush varieties are sown at about 90 centimetres, trailing ones at 150 centimetres.
The pumpkin is a heavy feeder and a well supplied bed rich in humus suits it. It is sown on the same spot again only in the fourth year.
Pumpkins through the year
- indoor sowing
- transplanting
- outdoor sowing
- harvest
In short
The last frost is not on the same day everywhere, so the recorded weeks are a guide and not a date.
Growing conditions
Are pumpkins toxic to cats and dogs?
No. Pumpkins are not toxic to cats and dogs.
Companions in the bed
Companion planting is tradition and not an agronomic claim. What is recorded is which pairs sources recommend and which they advise against.
The pumpkin is part of the Three Sisters. It holds for squash in general, so for the courgette as well.
Part of the Three Sisters: the squash covers the ground under the corn. It holds for squash in general, so for the courgette as well.
- “Widely cited” means the pair is named by three or more independent sources.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- Colonies of small aphids sit on the shoot tips and the underside of the leaves. The leaf curls and puckers, and sticky honeydew is left on everything below. The viruses they carry are more dangerous than the feeding itself.
- Prevention
- Go easy on nitrogen, because soft sappy growth is what aphids are looking for. Encourage the predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps). Use a reflective mulch, which puts them off settling, and a strong jet of water to knock the colony off the tips.
- What to do
- Potassium soap works on contact and only while it is wet, so it has to reach the underside of the leaf. On drought-loving plants and in heat it can scorch, so apply it in the evening.
- Signs
- At the blossom end of the fruit there is a watery, then dark, sunken and leathery patch. It is not a disease and does not pass from plant to plant, it is a sign that calcium never reached the fruit.
- Prevention
- Even moisture in the soil is the main measure: mulch and deep watering instead of a little and often. No excess nitrogen. Lime after a soil test, so that the calcium in the soil is available at all.
- What to do
- Remove the affected fruit. The next fruits come clean once the moisture steadies. A calcium spray gives temporary relief at best and does not replace watering.
- Signs
- A white, floury coating spreads over the leaves, first on the lower and older ones. The leaf under it yellows and dries up. The fruit stays small, because the plant loses leaf surface.
- Prevention
- Plant resistant varieties, leave an airy spacing and sun, and clear the debris at the end of the season. Unlike most fungi it is not helped by wet foliage, since it spreads in heat and high air humidity, in a dry summer too.
- What to do
- Oil products meant for powdery mildew on the squash family work on contact. They do not cure a leaf that is already affected, but they stop the spread to healthy ones. On herbs cut the affected shoots back instead, since the new growth comes clean. On ornamental perennials what is left is spacing and moisture.
Check the registration and the label before use.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Cucurbitaceae).
Sources about the plant: Alabama Cooperative Extension System, BUND Region Hannover, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, KGZS Zavod Ljubljana, KGZS Zavod Nova Gorica, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Royal Horticultural Society, Semenarna Ljubljana, Smernice za strokovno utemeljeno gnojenje (Mihelič et al., MKGP 2011), University of Illinois Extension, University of Maryland Extension, Utah State University Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, KGZS, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.