How To Grow Pumpkins, Preparing the Pumpkin Patch by Pumpkin Nook

Pumpkin Nook

The Internet Shrine and Library for Pumpkins

Home

Channels:
Market
How to Grow
Giant Pumpkins
Community
Fun and Games
Facts/Education
Cookbook
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Kid Stuff
Search Site

Other:
Readers Say:
Free Newsletter
Gardener's Net
Holiday Insights
HI Greeting Cards

* * * * * * *

Pest Control Products

How To Grow Pumpkins -Preparing the Pumpkin Patch

Preparing the pumpkin patch is a very important step towards producing great pumpkins. Pumpkin plants have voracious appetites for fertilizers and nutrients. The more you do to improve your garden soil, the bigger your reward comes harvest time.

Smart pumpkin growers work hard to improve their soil. You can do so in both the spring, and the fall.In the fall, gardeners put lots of leaves and raw (hot) manures into the soil, working it in thoroughly with a tiller. In the spring, you can continue to improve the soil with well-rotted manure and composted yard and kitchen waste.

Here's the basics for getting your pumpkin patch ready for spring planting:

Seed Starting Dates - There's a wide range of pumpkins, from giants to miniature Jack B. Little pumpkins. Time the planting of your pumpkin seeds, so you will have ripe pumpkins sometime in September.
Chronology - Review the Timetable for growing giant pumpkins, from seed starting, all the way to the harvest festivals.
Site Selection - It makes a big difference where you grow pumpkins. These plants have big appetites, consume lots of water and require full sun.
Preparing the Bed - Find out what you can do in the Fall and the Spring, to make your pumpkin patch ready, to grow the very best pumpkins.
Soil Preparation beyond the Bed - Pumpkin vines grow a long ways. Take care to enrich your garden soil in all of the patch, so secondary vines can feed and nurture your plants and fruit.
Soil Conditions, Amendments and Mulch - Pumpkin plants need a loose, loamy soil to hold lots of water. The soil needs to be as fertile as you can make it.
Ideal Soil pH Level - Find the ideal pH level, so your pumpkins grow healthy and B-I-G.
Adding Fertilizers and Micro-nutrients - In the spring before planting time, add a general purpose fertilizer that is high in nitrogen and has a broad spectrum of micro-nutrients. Work it into the soil.
Garden Manures - High in NPK and micro-nutrients, manure will pump up your pumpkin patch.

More Information:

Buy Flower, Vegetable and Herb Seeds - want the best pumpkin patch? Get the very best seeds, at the very best prices.

Garden composters turn kitchen and yard waste into rich, organic compost.

Buy a Composter now