Pick a pumpkin patch. Pumpkins like somewhere with lots of sun. They’re really greedy and need lots of nutrients so try to pick a spot that doesn’t have any other crops. They also like somewhere that has good drainage and doesn’t get too soggy after rain.
Prepare your patch. Before you put your pumpkin plant into the ground get the soil ready. Soil is really important as it is where your pumpkin will get all its food from. To do this, remove old plants and weeds from your patch then dig through lots of compost.
Plant your seedling. Dig a hole as wide and as deep as the punnet your pumpkin seedling is in. If you’re having more than one plant place them 2-4 metres apart. Gently remove your seedling by tapping the bottom of the punnet and wiggling out the plant. Place into the hole and fill in.
Look after your pumpkin. Give it plenty to drink. You need to keep the seedbed moist but not so wet that the plant drowns! Also keep it warm and protected from wind, mulch regularly and feed with liquid fertiliser.
Pick one. Pick the biggest pumpkin on each vine and get rid of the others so the one that is left grows really BIG!
Chop! In autumn, cut the pumpkin off the vine. Leave 10-20cm of vine attached and lift the pumpkin into a sunny sheltered spot to ripen.
How to get rid of your BIG pumpkin
Pumpkins can’t be left at the weigh-in. You need to take them away with you and you shouldn’t eat them.
Here’s some things you can do with them:
Feed to pigs.
Make a giant Jack-o’-lantern. Hollow pumpkin out, cut mouth and eye-holes and put a candle inside.
Make compost. Put all the hollowed out stuff from the Jack-o’-lantern into your compost bin.
Make a planter. Cut top off pumpkin, hollow out, fill with soil, plant flowers before planter decomposes
