If you planted pumpkins in your garden, you might quickly wonder when you will have fruit on the plants if there are no signs of growing. It could leave you wondering if you have done anything to stop your pumpkin plants produce fruit or if there is anything you need to do to help your pumpkin growth.
What time of year does a pumpkin plant bear fruit is often asked, and you’ll find a pumpkin vine is ready to yield its fruits around September or October at the end of the growing season. You may wonder, when do pumpkins start to grow? It takes a pumpkin plant between 90 to 120 days to reach maturity if you plant pumpkins from planting seeds. This type of fruit is annual and has a one-year lifespan.
The time for your plant to bear fruit depends on the type of pumpkin plant you select, and a few other factors before your pumpkin plant will start producing fruit. In our guide, you can learn how long does it take the average pumpkin to grow and what to do to offer the best growing conditions. (Read Do Japanese Maples Lose Their Leaves)
By the end, you’ll see that there aren’t too many visual signs in the early pumpkin plant stages, and you’ll see most action happening once the first flowers show themselves.
When Do Pumpkin Plants Produce Fruit?
A pumpkin plant can start bearing fruit for 90 to 120 days (3 to 4 months) after being sown from seed in the garden, depending on the variety.
Starting pumpkins from seed is advised from late May in northern locations to as late as early July in the deep south.
However, you can give your plants a 4- to 5-week head start if you start seeds indoors and transplant indoor plants outside as seedlings.
In either case, wait until soil temperature reaches 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the fruit’s color is uniform, and the rind is hard, your pumpkins are ready to be harvested (usually orange, but there are varieties with other colors).
Ripeness cannot always be determined by size. For example, jumbo pumpkin varieties can yield fruit that weighs 300 pounds, whereas miniature varieties only produce fruit that weighs less than one pound.
You can select from bush or vine pumpkin varieties.
How Much Fruit Will A Pumpkin Plant Produce?
Pumpkin plants with smaller fruits, such as miniature varieties, produce more pumpkins overall.
Depending on the variety, you can get a single huge pumpkin or multiple miniature pumpkins on a single plant.
When ripe, pumpkin fruit on a plant is typically orange; however, some varieties turn brown, yellow, or green in hue.
Will Pumpkin Plants Die Once Harvested?
After harvest, pumpkin plants do indeed die. However, as an annual plant, pumpkins only live for one year, long enough to produce fruit and disperse seeds to reproduce.
Remember that a frost can prematurely damage pumpkin plants in the first few weeks of fall. (Learn How Many Pumpkins Per Plant)
What Kind Of Pumpkin To Grow?
Which pumpkins to cultivate is down to choice. First will be the pumpkin sizes you wish to grow and for what purpose.
Miniature pumpkin varieties yield more fruit and are easier to harvest and handle. However, harvesting jumbo varieties are complex.
Tall vine pumpkins grow well on a trellis so you can get more fruits per area, while bush pumpkins grow broader than vine pumpkins and don’t need to be supported as one plant will spread its fruits across the ground.
Do You Need Two Pumpkin Plants To Grow Pumpkins?
When growing pumpkins, you may be in an area that is hard to attract bees to pollinate your flowers.
Luckily, you don’t need two pumpkin plants to grow pumpkins. One pumpkin plant grows both male and female flowers.
The pollen must move from the male flower to the female flower. While bees or other pollinators do this, you can hand pollinate by picking a male pumpkin flower and touching it against the female flowers of the same or other pumpkin plants you have.
To spot the difference, there is a swelling at the base of the pumpkin flower, thus showing it is female.
Male flowers appear on pumpkin plants, followed by female blooms days later. Male flowers will drop after a day, and female flowers are only open for pollination for a few hours one morning on one day.
Once pumpkins flower, observe them closely. If there aren’t many bees around, you can assure pollination success by stepping in to pollinate pumpkin flowers by hand in the limited female flower bloom time. (Read Why Are My Pumpkins Leaves Turning Yellow)
What Other Factors Affect Fruit On Pumpkin Plants?
The care you provide your pumpkin plants affects how much fruit you obtain, such as temperature, water, fertilizing, and pruning are all vital.
Temperatures For Pumpkin Plants
Young and mature pumpkin plants might die from early fall or late spring frost. In addition, early-season soil temperatures below 60°F (16°C) may hinder pumpkin seeds germination.
Young pumpkin plants are vulnerable to low temperatures of under 50 f (10 degrees Celsius).
Mature pumpkins can withstand a light frost, but plant early to harvest before regular nightly frosts start.
Planting in late May in north locations or early July in the south, you can harvest your Jack-O-Lanterns before Halloween (October 31).
Ensure your pumpkin plants don’t overheat, as high temperatures cause pumpkin plants to shed blossoms and fruit.
Pumpkin growth is optimal between 65 and 90 F. (18 to 32 degrees Celsius). However, if daytime temperatures rise above this for too long, it can stress your plants, and you find you don’t have any flowers or fruits.
Watering Pumpkin Plants
Deep roots help pumpkin plants withstand drought. Avoid letting the soil dry out too much when the plant is young and developing or when the fruit is forming.
Too much water can cause root rot and kill pumpkin plants. Since pumpkin vines grow along the ground (unless trellised), moist soil can cause decaying vines, leaves, and soil diseases, thus leaving plants prone to rot.
If you want to know when to water, feel the soil. If 2 or 3 inches of topsoil are dry, it is time to water.
Water in the morning rather than at night allows water to seep into the soil and helps avoid moist leaves, leading to rot, mold, and fungal infections. In addition, avoid overhead watering as you’ll find your plants suffer the same.
Fertilizing Pumpkin Plants
Compost your soil before planting pumpkin seeds or transplants. It will feed your plants as they grow. You may make compost from the yard and kitchen garbage.
Composting recycles yard and kitchen trash while nourishing your garden.
In nutrient-deficient soil, fertilizers may be needed to augment compost. A soil test shows if you need fertilizer.
Over-fertilizing pumpkin plants might kill them, and too much nitrogen will inhibit pumpkin plant fruits.
Pruning Pumpkin Plants
Some gardeners choose to pull off some of the early female flowers on a pumpkin plant. This allows the plant to conserve energy to produce fewer but larger fruit.
If you are going for championship pumpkins, thin to one fruit per plant!
Whenever you prune or harvest pumpkins, use a sharp knife and leave around three inches of the stem. (Read When To Cut Back Irises)
Select the Perfect Site
The first step in planting seeds and getting a successful result is choosing the best location.
It is entirely up to you how long it takes to select the ideal location and prepare the soil, although a sunny spot in your garden that doesn’t get too hot is best.
The Time It Takes to Plant the Seeds
The seeds should be sown directly into the ground for the most outstanding results. Given the correct temperature and environmental factors, the vines should grow in 7 to 10 days. Unwanted vines can be cut off without affecting the roots.
How long from flowering to harvesting pumpkins?
Patience is the key if you want to end up with tasty bright-colored pumpkins. It takes between 90 and 120 days to plant and harvest for average pumpkin plant growth.
Pumpkin Pollination Process Time
Pollination helps plants produce fruit. The female blooms appear 8 to 9 weeks after the seeds are sown, a few days after the male ones. For example, pumpkins start 7 days after the female flowers bloom.
How Long For Fruit to Appear After Female Flowers Close
Once pollination is adequate, a pumpkin takes 45 to 55 days to mature. The pumpkin grows and changes to a solid color depending on the kind planted. Once the pumpkins ripen, the stems die, signaling harvest time.
Life Cycle Of Pumpkin Plants
Here you can find the stages of pumpkin growth in an average pumpkin patch.
1. Start from Seeds
The life of a pumpkin begins as a seed, as does the life of most fruits and vegetables.
Pumpkin plants require a lot of room because of their long vines and large fruit. Therefore, we advise spacing each seed 4 feet apart.
The plants need well-draining soil and full sun. Planting the seeds in mounds helps prevent water from collecting around their roots
Deep waterings are required to maintain moist soil yet not soggy slow.
2. Green Before Bright Orange
Green will predominate before orange. These pumpkin seeds grow enormous vines and leaves for the fruits that fill your pumpkin patch. Add nitrogen-rich fertilizer to green sprouts to enhance leaf growth.
Pumpkins can’t grow without their large leaves. They soak up rays to generate chlorophyll that feeds the plant and provides shade to keep baby pumpkins from burning and losing color.
Water pumpkin vines at the base as powdery mildew can destroy a plant if its leaves stay damp.
3. Fall Flowers
Before producing pumpkins, pumpkin plants produce large yellow blossoms.
Pumpkin flowers are vital because they pollinate the fruit, which is crucial for the entire pumpkin life cycle.
Male and female flowers exist on one plant, and the female flower blooms a week after the male flowers.
Female flowers have a swelling circular bulge below the petals. It’s a miniature pumpkin.
Bees pollinate most crops, although, without bees, flowers can be hand-pollinated.
Gather pollen from a male flower using a clean paintbrush or cotton ball and dab it on a female blossom.
Flowers perish after pollination. Under the female bloom, a nub will grow, which turns into your pumpkin.
4. Fruiting Time
Count pumpkins on each vine. Once a pumpkin vines has a few pumpkins, it may be wise to prune them to prevent it from producing too many fruits at once in your garden.
As pumpkins start, reduce watering. Harvest it when the fruit is orange, and the vines look dry.
Cut firm fruit. They’ll rot in days if they’re soft. To harvest, cut the stem a few inches above the fruit.
You can weigh your pumpkin against the world-record holder, which weighed almost 3,000 pounds.
If your pumpkin doesn’t break the record, carve it into a jack-o-lantern.
5. Save Your New Seeds
Rinse pumpkin seeds after carving to remove pulp. Save the
biggest pumpkin seeds for germination.
Once clean, store them in a cool place on a paper towel for a week. When dry, store seeds in an envelope until spring.
Knowing the pumpkin’s life cycle, you can start your pumpkin patch.
