Edible plant · fruiting

Pumpkin

Cucurbita pepo (most) / Cucurbita maxima (giants)

Also known asField pumpkin · Pie pumpkin · Sugar pumpkin · Calabaza · Kürbis

beginner warm-season frost-sensitive single

Use in garden planner

Days to harvest

90–120

Yield / plant

5kg

Spacing

180 cm

Daily light

22–32DLI

Environment

The bounded range this crop tolerates. Strict on light; outside the DLI band, yields drop sharply.

Temperature

5152535

18–30°C

45.578.5

6–7

EC (hydro)

01234

1.8–2.6 mS/cm

Daily light

5152535

22–32 mol/m²/d

!Light strict; fails outside DLI band

✓Single harvest

Climate and zones

USDA zones: 3–12 (winter low around -40°C)
Frost: frost sensitive (dies at first frost)
Season: warm (summer, frost-sensitive)

·Outdoor year-round (in zone)

✓Outdoor in growing season

·Unheated greenhouse / hoop

·Heated greenhouse

·Indoor (heated home)

·Indoor hydroponics + grow lights

Growing systems

Root mass: very heavy. Thin-channel systems can't hold this crop.

·Deep water culture (rafts)

·NFT channels

·Vertical / aeroponic tower

·Drip / Dutch buckets

·Media bed (ebb and flow)

·Wicking bed

✓Soil bed

Growing media

Medium	pH effect	Retention	Bacterial surface
Soil-based mix (Potting soil)	varies	high	high

Nutrient demand by stage

NPK ratios are relative weights. EC targets shift through the plant's life.

Stage	N	P	K	EC (mS/cm)
seedling	2	1	1	1.2
vegetative	3	1	2	1.8
flowering	1	2	3	2.2
fruiting	1	2	3	2.4

Companion-growing notes

Heavy uptake of potassium, nitrogen. Co-grown crops with the same demand will end up deficient even at "correct" EC.
Very high transpiration. Reservoir drops fast; expect daily top-ups and EC creep.

Aquaponics suitability

Not recommended

Fish waste alone doesn't supply enough of what this crop demands. Grows in hybrid systems with supplemental dosing, but expect active management.

Care notes

A space-demanding vine crop. Each plant needs 3-5 square metres of ground for the sprawling vine, or a strong vertical trellis for smaller varieties. Use a Dutch bucket or large container (30 L) with trellis for pie/sugar types. EC 1.8-2.6 mS/cm. pH 6.0-7.0. Temperature: 18–30°C. Very high light (DLI 22-32 mol/m2/day). Hand-pollination is needed indoors. Each vine produces 2-5 fruits depending on variety, and from transplant to harvest runs 90-120 days. Harvest when the skin is hard (a fingernail cannot dent it), the colour is fully developed and the stem is brown and corky. Cure at 25–30°C for 10-14 days to harden the skin and improve storage; well-cured pumpkins keep 3-6 months at 10–15°C. For fresh puree, cut the pumpkin in half, roast it face-down at 190°C until tender, scoop out the flesh and puree it; homegrown sugar pumpkin puree tastes far better than canned.

Notable varieties

Cultivar	Type	Origin	Days	Notes
Connecticut Field	heirloom		115	The classic Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkin. 4-7 kg, orange, ribbed. Decent for pie but generally grown for size and color.
Howden	open pollinated	John Howden, Massachusetts, 1960s	115	The variety most commercial pumpkin patches actually sell. Improved Connecticut Field with deeper ribs and a sturdier handle. The supermarket Halloween pumpkin is almost always Howden or a Howden hybrid.
Small Sugar (Pie Pumpkin)	heirloom		105	2-3 kg, the traditional pie pumpkin. Smooth dense orange flesh, far better for pie than the carving types. The variety to grow if your goal is the pumpkin pie.
Cinderella (Rouge Vif d'Etampes)	heirloom		110	French heirloom, flattened ribbed shape, deep red-orange skin. Famously the shape of Cinderella's coach. Excellent cooking quality, productive, decorative.
Long Island Cheese	heirloom		110	Tan-skinned, flattened, with deep ribs. Closely related to butternut (C. moschata in some seed catalogs). Cooks like butternut: sweet, smooth, excellent pies.