How to Farm Pumpkin

Pumpkin is a winter squash, most commonly associated with Halloween and Thanksgiving in the United States. They're one of the most popular fruit crops, grown largely for processing into pumpkin puree for pies. Many people grow pumpkins to extraordinary sizes, sometimes hundreds of pounds, for fairs and competitions. For supplemental income in the fall, many farmers grow pumpkins in small patches to be picked by tourists and schoolchildren.

Instructions

- 1
  Find a low-lying area with plenty of sun in midsummer, and shape mounds of about three feet in diameter, six inches in height and about eight feet apart. Plant a few seeds in the center of these mounds. Add potassium-rich fertilizer to the soil.
- 2
  Water only enough to moisten the topsoil daily, to avoid washing away this loose soil, as well as encouraging roots to take hold. After one to two weeks, small oval leaves should split the surface. At this stage, water the moats exclusively, only enough to form puddles. Repeat when the soil appears dry.
- 3
  Watch the pumpkins for ripening fruits, the first of which you'll start to see between three and four months of growth. Pumpkins require little tending other than watering. When harvesting ripened pumpkins, cut the fruit off at about three inches from the end of the stem and allow the fruit to cure in the sun for about a week, turning when necessary.

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