When pumpkins come to mind, we often think of the fall, Halloween, tasty pies, and delicious flavored coffee. Gardening allows us to have this crop on hand whenever we want. We no longer have to rely on others to produce this treat. While pumpkins do eventually need to be harvested outdoors because of their vines, you can start out by growing them indoors in the comfort of your home.
Begin by filling peat pots with decomposed compost and some manure. Leave 1 or 2 inches of space at the top of the pot. For each peat pot, dig a hole in the mixture about 2 inches deep. That’s where you’ll be placing two to three pumpkin seeds. The best time to do this is two or three weeks before the last expected frost of the season. Make sure the seeds are completely covered with the mixture, but do not press down too tight. As always when gardening, place your peat pot where there will be a lot of sunlight. It’s one of the most important aspects to the growth of plants.
Another important step to a successful gardening endeavor is watering. You’ll need to water your pumpkin seeds once a day. The mixture should be damp, but never soaked. Between two to four weeks, the pumpkin seeds will begin producing shoots. While you can still try and grow pumpkins indoors at this point, you should start thinking about transplanting the seedlings to somewhere outdoors. Pumpkin plants are large vine-producing plants, so eventually they are next to impossible to contain indoors. Invest in a greenhouse if you’re set on only growing pumpkins indoors.
When making the transfer to outside, dig a hole somewhere sunny in your garden. It has to be big enough so that you can leave 3 to 4 inches of spaces above and around the peat pots. Once the peat pots are comfortably placed in the ground, cover the stem of the seedling up with soil. This helps the pumpkins continue to grow regularly. Of course, you’ll also need to continue your watering regimen now that it’s outdoors.
Growing produce from start takes a lot of hard work and effort. Between gathering up the right supplies to choosing the perfect spot to grow the plant, there is a lot more to gardening than most people think. What can we say? Not everyone has a green thumb. Thankfully with tips like these, you can become a pro at harvesting your favorite crops like pumpkins.
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