It is Not Too Late to Start Pumpkins for Halloween
I’ve been asking for 2 months for my hubby to till my garden. He planted greens this spring, then just let them go to seed. I had planned that area for watermelon, then pumpkins, but it’s waaayyy too late for watermelon, and getting close to 
being too late for pumpkins–to have them by Halloween, that is. I did some research today, and found that I have plenty of time to plant short-season pumpkins. I found some that take only 80 days, and right now we have 107 days until Halloween. No problem even if the seeds take a week to get here.
We need the money these pumpkins might bring in–around here a soccer-ball-size pumpkin is $5, larger ones $10 or even $15. I don’t want to count my pumpkins before they are planted, however 25 x $5 = $125, and 15 x $10 = $150, total = $275. $15 for seeds, $10 for humus/manure, and a few dollars for watering–those are the only expenses. Forty pumpkins is a low estimate of the yield I might get, yet I’d be very happy with that for my first try at selling anything I produce.
Sooooo, I ordered 2 types of pumpkin seed from Vesey’s in Canada, and tomorrow I’m going to till the garden myself if hubby doesn’t. (That will be a very bad thing for me, I’ll be in bed in pain for 2 days afterwards, but time doesn’t wait for procrastinating husbands.) I’m anxious to do it tomorrow because the weather report says it will be 83 degrees and partly sunny for today and tomorrow–unbelievably cool for this time of year, it has been in the upper 90’s for weeks. I’ve got to take advantage of it.
I found the pumpkin seeds at Veseys, which is in Canada:
Neon
The catalogue describes it as:
"Be the first gardener around with orange pumpkins! Beautiful shaped medium orange pumpkins have a strong dark green handle. This hybrid forms semi-bush plants which don’t take up as much space and allows for higher density plantings. Can weigh up to 8-10 lbs and have dark yellow to light orange interior. Maturity ranges from 60-80 days. Approx. 35 sds/pkg."
New Rocket
The catalogue describes it as:
"All of the earliness and yield of Rocket but with better color, better shape and a stronger handle. These improvements make one of our strongest pumpkin varieties even better. New Rocket produces somewhat larger fruit weighing 14-22 lbs. Be one of the first to the competitive fall market. Early maturity in about 86 days. Approx. 15-20 sds/pkg."
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Hm. You wouldn’t happen to know what sort of space is required for pumpkin growing would you? I wouldn’t want a whole crop for selling, just three or four for myself. Think that could be done in a large planter? Or maybe I could do smaller pumpkins…Any thoughts?
Well, the Neon variety I’m purchasing is said to be semi-bush, so the vines are much shorter than normal, I’m guessing abour 4-5 feet, but that’s just a guess. It probably would work fine in a large container as long as the vines can spread on the ground around the pot a little. You may have to support any pumpkins that were hanging off the ground, since at 5 lbs they may snap off the vine too soon.
Growing a few in a pot on the front porch might be neat: they can serve as decorations while they are still on the vine growing.
You probably only need a few seeds, I can send you some when mine arrive.
Awesome! I will probably try it out. Just be neat decoration come Halloween. I’ve got cucumbers growing in a planter too, they seem fine, they just spread right out over the sides of the pot and along the ground. I assume the pumpkins would do ok with that too.
Don’t worry about sending seeds, I’m pretty sure we’ve got some around here somewhere, but I had forgotten about them until I saw your blog post. Thanks for the reminder!
Check out the pumpkins that reseed every year in my compost pile!
Your pumpkins look wonderful. I hope ours do well, too. This fall when I pile the leaves I may add some pumpkin remains and see what happens come spring.