The quintessential orange pumpkin — large, round and perfect for carving at Halloween, but equally versatile in the kitchen.
About the variety. Elliptical fruits with bright orange skin, weighing around 3 kg. The flowers are edible and attract pollinators. After harvest, the pumpkin keeps well for approximately 4 months.
Indicative windows; adjust them to your local climate.
Edible flower
Bee-friendly
Direct sowing
Growing guide
How to grow jack o'lantern pumpkin?
A step-by-step growing guide, from sowing to harvest.
Sowing
Sow in individual pots three weeks before planting out, two or three centimetres deep with the seed on its edge, at 20 °C to 25 °C, or direct where it is to grow with two or three seeds per station once the soil passes 15 °C. Germination takes five to ten days. Transplant with the root ball whole, because the roots are sensitive. The first flowers are all male and set no fruit; if later the small fruits shrivel, pollination is failing: hand pollinate early in the morning with a brush. This variety makes long vines: the spacing given is for plants trained on a support or with the vines kept in check; left to run on the ground, it takes two to three metres.
Soil
It wants deep, loose soil, very rich in organic matter and free draining, with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. The classic approach is to open a wide hole, fill it with mature compost and plant on that spot, which gives the plant the reserve it needs. Rotate on a four year cycle with crops from other families.
Climate
It wants full sun, warmth between 20 °C and 30 °C and a long season, three to five months to full maturity depending on the variety. It is very frost sensitive at any stage: plant out only after the last frost and cover young plants with a cloche on cold nights. Inland in Portugal and Spain heat rather than cold is the limiting factor: in weeks above 35 °C the plant stalls and light shade over midday pays for itself. In France outdoor growing is reliable from the centre southwards, while in northern France and in Germany a greenhouse, a polytunnel or a warm south facing wall makes the difference, and planting out should wait until after the mid May cold snap. Where summers are short, always choose the shorter cycle varieties and start them early in a heated tray.
Fertilisation
Work two to three kilos of well rotted compost into each square metre before planting and add a handful of wood ash to top up potassium. Once growth is away, feed with a liquid organic fertiliser every two or three weeks, moving from a balanced formula to a higher potassium one as cropping begins. Avoid excess nitrogen, which gives lush leaves, a poor crop and a lot of aphids.
Watering
Water generously through growth and fruit fill, always at the base. In the last two or three weeks before harvest cut the water right back: that concentrates the sugars and hardens the skin, which is what gives winter keeping quality.
Weed control
The critical period is the first month, before the foliage covers the ground. Hand weed in that phase and, once the vines start to run, stop disturbing the soil: from then on the plant smothers weeds itself. A straw mulch under the foliage keeps the fruit clean and dry and greatly reduces losses to rot where fruit touches the soil.
Pest control
The main pests are aphids, red spider mite, thrips and whitefly, and on young plants slugs and snails, which can cut down a newly emerged seedling in one night. Protect the seedlings with a cut bottle or an ash barrier for the first weeks. Against aphids and whitefly use potassium soap in the late afternoon; against red spider mite, which appears in dry heat, wet the leaves in the morning and use neem oil.
Diseases
Powdery mildew is practically unavoidable and shows as white dust on the upper leaf surface, above all from midsummer on. It is checked with potassium bicarbonate or sulphur applied at the first signs, together with removal of old leaves and good airflow. Cucurbit downy mildew gives angular yellow patches bounded by the veins and thrives in coastal humidity. Anthracnose and collar rot appear in waterlogged soil. Use a four year rotation and clear all crop debris at the end of the season, because that is where the fungi overwinter.
Harvest
Harvest when the stalk is dry and woody, the skin does not mark under a fingernail and the plant has died back. Cut with ten centimetres of stalk, because a pumpkin without its stalk rots from the crown. Cure the fruit in the sun for ten to fourteen days, then store somewhere dry and airy at 10 °C to 15 °C, not touching each other. Properly cured it keeps two to four months. Allow about 100 to 110 days from sowing to the first harvest of this variety. The reference colour is orange, and that is what tells you it is ready.
