Green Blog
20 May 2011
Grow your own food, week 10 - pumpkins and squash
Pumpkins and winter squash are cartoon crops. Sow a seed and soon you're raising a beast. Then there are the giant fruits in all shapes and sweetshop colours. Whoever first thought of pumpkins sure had a sense of humour.
If you haven't done so already, get yourself a pack of seed and sow them now.
It's best to start them in pots on a windowledge as they hate the cold. When you have three pairs of leaves on your baby plant, get it into the ground, which should now be nice and warm. It'll need somewhere sunny, preferably in soil enriched with compost or rotted manure.
Sow the seeds on end rather than flat, as this is supposed to stop them rotting.
Pumpkins and squash need a long summer and good weather to put on the pounds and ripen properly, so look out for a variety that's early ripening.
If you haven't much space, grow a bush variety and coil the plant into a spiral. Trailing varieties can be trained over trellis or an arch in a small garden.
For a better chance of a mature pumpkin or squash, nip off the growing tip of the plant when three fruit have formed - and knock off any subsequent flowers that start turning to fruit.
If you're going for a beast for Hallowe'en, aim for one fruit per plant.
The biggest beast of all is Atlantic Giant. It might win you a prize or two, but I wouldn't eat it - come to think of it, I wouldn't feed it to my chickens either.
For flavour, Uchiki Kuri and Buttercup are popular. I grow Crown Prince that has an attractive, grey blue skin and makes a fabulous risotto. It stores well too. We've eaten pumpkin in March from a harvest the previous October.
To get a pumpkin or squash to store well, you need to ripen it properly at the end of the summer. That's the subject of a whole other blog, which I'll post at harvest time.
Put it in the diary.
Dominic Murphy, Publishing & New Media Team
Dominic Murphy's book 'The Playground Potting' Shed includes an easy guide to growing food throughout the year. To order a signed copy at the special price of £6.99, please visit our Shop
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