Both male and female blossoms need to open.

If your first flowers aren’t forming fruits, that’s normal.Just before the blooming period, switch to a high-phosphorus formula fertilizer. Side-dress with aged manure or compost mixed with water. When plants are about 1 foot tall, just before vines begin to run, fertilize regularly with a high-nitrogen formula. Small vine varieties can be trained to grow up a trellis. Larger varieties can be trained upward, too, to support the fruit, usually with netting or old stockings.Side-dress with aged manure or compost mixed with water.Also, take care not to damage the delicate vines the quality of the fruit depends on them. Weed gently pumpkins have shallow roots that can be easily damaged.Add mulch around your pumpkins to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and discourage pests.Avoid watering foliage and fruit unless it’s a sunny day. Pumpkins need 1 inch of water per week. Water deeply, in the morning and on very hot afternoons, especially during fruit set.Or, grow colorful flowers near the patch. To attract more bees, try placing a bee house in your garden. If you must use it, apply only in the late afternoon or early evening, when blossoms are closed for the day. Bees are essential for pollination, so be mindful when using insecticides to kill bugs or fungicides to control fungus.

However, remember to remove covers before flowering to allow pollination.

Use row covers to protect plants early in the season and to prevent insect problems.

In this video, Ben shows us his method for growing pumpkins! Rows should be 6 to 8 feet apart, with seedlings thinned to the best plant every 2 feet when they have their first true leaves. Plant miniature varieties one inch deep, with two or three seeds every 2 feet in the row. When seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall, thin to two or three plants per hill by snipping out unwanted plants.

In hills, set seeds 1 inch deep with 4 or 5 seeds per hill.

Once seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall, thin to one plant every 18 to 36 inches.

In rows, sow seeds 6 to 12 inches apart.

Prepare hills by digging down 12 to 15 inches and mixing/filling in with lots of aged manure and/or compost. A hill does not mean the soil has to be mounded it’s a spot containing a group of plants or seeds. Hills warm soil quickly (so seeds germinate faster) and aid with drainage and pest control.

Sow seeds either in rows 8 feet apart or plant in hills 4 feet apart.

Vining pumpkins require a minimum of 50 to 100 square feet per hill. If you are short on space, make sure the vines are directed to the outer edge of the garden bed.

Count backward from a week or so before Halloween. Look at the seed packet for how many days to harvest.

Want pumpkins in time for Halloween? Plant in the North from late May and in the extreme South from early July.

Then harden off seedlings before transplanting into warm, aged manure/compost-enriched soil.

Where the growing season is very short, start by sowing indoors in peat pots, 2 to 4 weeks before the last spring frost.Do not sow seeds directly until well after the danger of frost is past and the soil has thoroughly warmed to a temperature between 65° and 95☏ (18° to 35☌). Learn more about preparing the soil for planting. Pumpkins are heavy feeders! It’s important to mix aged manure and/or compost into the soil.

Outdoor jack o lantern