How to Grow Pumpkins in Oregon
There is no getting around it, pumpkins are a central icon of autumn, harvest and especially Halloween. Pumpkin pie, harvest bread and even pumpkin soup are favorite recipes we think about preparing when the leaves start turning golden brown. Jack-o'-lanterns, carved with both scary and fun faces can be seen on porches and doorsteps as ghostly clad children scream trick-or-treat for a piece of candy. Grow a bunch of pumpkins and share them with your neighbors. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Decide what type of pumpkins you want to plant. “Autumn Gold” would most likely be the popular pumpkin you pick up at the grocery store. It’s a great choice to grow in Oregon with a 90-day growing season. Consider some other varieties as well, especially those with shorter growing seasons of 100 days or less. Many locations in Oregon have short growing seasons. “Casper” has a white/bluish tint to its rind making it great for ghostly decorations. It has a great taste for cooking and the growing season is 100 days. “Jack Be Little” is a miniature décor pumpkin of 2- to 3-inches high. The color is a dark orange with a growing season of 90 days.
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Choose your planting location. If you have a vegetable garden in which you are adding pumpkins, choose an area at the edge of the plot where the pumpkin vines will be free to grow without interfering with other plants. Otherwise, if you are only growing pumpkins, you will still want to make sure their extensive vines and leaves will not disturb any landscaping.
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Prepare your soil for best results in growing pumpkins in Oregon. Pumpkins like moist soil, rich in organic matter. Different locations in Oregon will give you soil needed more or less, with help. This means you still need to add compost or manure to the soil to enrich it. Break up the top 12 inches of the garden bed and mix in the organic matter. Also mix in fertilizer at the same time. Two lbs. of ammonium sulfate for each 100-square-feet area is enough.
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Work your soil into mounds at least 1 foot high and 4 to 6 feet apart depending on the variety. Pumpkins take a lot of growing space. Follow the directions for your particular type of pumpkin from the back of the seed packet. Plant 3 to 5 seeds separately at the top of the mound, about 1 inch deep. Keep the tops of the mounds evenly damp, spraying with gentle water. You don’t want the seeds to become uncovered. Add more water at the base of the mounds as the pumpkin plants grow to keep the soil underneath moist.
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When the seeds sprout, thin them to the best two plants. If you are growing a miniature variety of pumpkin then you will want to thin to the best one plant. This will keep them from getting too overcrowded and stunting the fruit.
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Harvest your pumpkins. They can be picked whenever they are the size you would like, when the rind is hard, and the color is a deep orange or the preferred color for your pumpkin variety. When cutting the pumpkins from their vines, use a sharp knife or pruning shears, leaving approximately 3 inches of the stem attached to the pumpkin. If you cut the pumpkin with a shorter stem, it will not keep as long.
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Eat some of the bounty of your pumpkin patch. Make all kinds of pumpkin desserts, but don’t forget that the pumpkin flowers are edible (great for topping salads), and the seeds are extremely nutritious with beta-carotene, vitamin C and potassium. It also has a lot of fiber which can help to curb the appetite. The seeds contain zinc and unsaturated fatty acids.
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Tips & Warnings
You can start your pumpkin seeds indoors in peat pots or other containers. Set them in a sunny window sill. This will give them a head start if you are waiting for frost to pass in your area.
If you don’t want to eat your pumpkin seeds, you can wash and dry them and save them to plant next year.
Resources
- Photo Credit rich66~ at Flickr
