How to Grow a Giant Pumpkin (2024)

We’ve been after the great pumpkin since we watched that fantastic Halloween special! Wondering how to grow a huge pumpkin? Start early! See our tips and tricks on how to grow a big(ger) pumpkin athome.

The Mythical GiantPumpkin

New England state fairs are famous for their pumpkin competitions. Year after year, we see champion pumpkin records smashed. In 2018, a New Hampshire man named Steve Geddes grew a pumpkin that weighed 2,528 pounds and won the top prize at the Deerfield, NH,fair.

However, pumpkins get EVEN bigger than that! According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Travis Gienger currently holds the record for the biggest pumpkin. His giant gourd was presented at the 50th Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off held in Half Moon Bay, California, where it weighed in at 2,749pounds!

Can you believe this squash grew from a single seed (and maybe a lot offertilizer)?

Records aside, most of us are just interested in growing a healthy, large pumpkin to grace our doorstep, but let’s talk about what it takes to gobig.

Choose a Giant PumpkinVariety

What’s the secret to such a massive harvest? It’s all in the seed. The pumpkin still takes between 100 and 120 days to grow, the same length of time as smallerones.

The seed is called ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant,’and it will grow a pumpkin that’s generally between 200 to 300 pounds without much special attention beyond plenty of water and lots ofspace.

There are other types of giant pumpkin seeds, but most competition-size pumpkins come from the Atlantic Giantvariety.

Order these seeds from a mail-order nursery such as Jung Seed,Park Seed, or Burpee.

Prepare the Soil For YourPumpkin

You need to prepare your soil in the fall before you plan to grow your giant pumpkin.Pumpkins are hungry feeders and also need a lot of space for their vines to spread out, so a giant pumpkin needs a giant amount of space. Think up to 1,200 square feet or, roughly, a 40-foot diametercircle.

1. Make sure your planting and growing area getsfull sun (8 hours of sunlight perday)!
2. Till up a 10-foot diameter bed.Spread 6 inches of composted manure over the bed and till itin.
3. Shape the bed into a low, broad mound and cover it for the winter with a straw mulch.
   • Note:If you plan to grow more than one seed, then prepare another mound at least 10 feetapart.
4. Also, take a soil test. If your soil is acidic, apply lime in the fall to bring the soil to a more neutralpH.
5. In late winter or early spring,put downcompost.

How to Grow a Giant Pumpkin atHome

1. As these pumpkins generally take about 120 days to mature, you’ll ideally want to get a head start by seeding seeds indoors in peat pots about a month before your average last frost date.Seeds germinate at temperatures of65° to 75°F and soil temperatures of 70° to90°F.
2. Once your most vigorous seedling has several leaves, transplant it into the bed that was prepared in thefall.
3. We suggest you use a cold frame, hoop house, or high tunnel to protect the plant from late frosts and to warm up the ground, which encourages the pumpkin plant to start growing. It doesn’t have to be fancy—four stakes with clear 6-mil plastic sheeting stapled over the top will do. A cold frame should cover at least a 4-foot diameter area around the youngplant.
4. After you plant the seeds, fertilize every two weeks or so with decomposed manure, compost, orfertilizer.
5. Pumpkins need a LOT of water.Check soil daily. The ground should ALWAYS be moist, but not soggy. Always water at the soil level, never on the leaves, which can encourage disease.Water and fertilize the soil under all the vines, not just the main root system, to encourage maximumuptake.
6. Do not let weeds grow in your pumpkin patch, and be careful not to step on the ground or compact the soil near yourpumpkin.
7. To put all the energy into ONE pumpkin, pick off all flower buds until the pumpkin vine is about 10 feet long. After this, let several flowers develop into pumpkins, but remove all but the largest fruit after several weeks ofgrowth.
8. Stake down or bury leaf nodes along the vine. These will root and help prevent wind from rolling thevines.
9. Hand-pollinate pumpkins to increase the number of seeds that develop and the likelihood of bigger fruits. To do this, pull off the petals of male flowers, which look like straight stalks, and dab these on the female flowers, which have little round ball-shaped ovaries at their base. Note that the male flowers will appear before the female flowers; bepatient.
10. As the pumpkin gains size,gently slip a large piece of cardboard or piece of wood under the fruit to avoid rot and insect problems. Or, you could spread sand below thepumpkin.
11. Add a canopy of shade cloth over the chosen pumpkin. Full sun is necessary for maximum growth, but sunlight will also harden the skin of the fruit earlier, restricting its ultimatesize.
12. Remove the rootlets that form along the vine for several feet on either side of the pumpkin so that the vine can lift freely from the ground as the pumpkingrows.
13. Spread a couple of inches of soil over roots that form along other parts of the vines to encourage a larger rootsystem.
14. Prune the lateral vines that develop off the main vine once they reach about 8 feet in length. Though, in general, you want as many leaves as possible to feed energy to the growing pumpkin, the plant begins to divert more energy to vine growth (rather than fruit growth) if the vines are allowed to grow to an excessivelength.
15. Harvest your pumpkin at the end of the season, just before the first frost. It will appear pale yellow to orange-ish red when it isready.

See the Almanac’s Guide to Growing Pumpkins to learn how to plant, grow, harvest, and cure pumpkins. Goodluck!

Have you ever grown a giant pumpkin? Tell us your tips and tricks for bigpumpkins!