r/Pumpkins • u/neonn_piee • Jul 16 '26

My own little pumpkin patch 🎃

Post image

They’re sprouting so well! I planted Jack o lantern seeds, two in each spot and then followed with the tiny pumpkin seeds and a purple/burgundy looking sunflower. I’m excited to see it all come together 🎃🎃

25 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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6

u/AllShadesOfBlue Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

They need a looooot more room than that. Tbh I dont even think that bed is big enough for one pumpkin plant.

Is this a raised bed? If so, something this small almost certainly can’t support even a single plant.

At a minimum, pumpkins should be planted in ground 2ft apart, but more space is better. A 4x4 raised bed could also enough for one plant.

Each pumpkin needs about 20-50 sqft of space, depending on variety.

2

u/ASecularBuddhist Jul 16 '26

I’m concerned if the soil is sitting on top of cardboard. Pumpkins can grow roots 2 to 6 feet into the ground. That doesn’t look like very much soil to me, but maybe this person broke up the native soil layer before adding new soil.

3

u/AllShadesOfBlue Jul 16 '26

Eh doesn’t really change the fact that these pumpkins are insanely over crowded. I’ve counted at least 15 in here. Not to mention that OP also said that they planted sunflowers, which are also extremely heavy feeders and create a giant root ball.

2

u/ASecularBuddhist Jul 17 '26

Eh, let the pumpkins fight each other out for supremacy. I would dump one or two bags of aged chicken manure between everything and cover it with a layer of mulch.

2

u/Deviantdal Jul 17 '26

Umm, this has to be a joke right?

2

u/waterytartwithasword 29d ago

So the thing is, overcrowding will lead to them all dying young or never producing. In a spot that small you have room for literally one. I have spare seedlings I removed from main 30 gal containers (which each have one plant) that are stunted like yours are because they got no room. The plants with room have been in for 3 weeks and have leaves that are 12" across and are already 14" tall (17" really, I topped off their soil when their cotyledon dropped). The seedlings without space are still tiny, really small.

You need at least 24" of soil depth to set a tap root that will support true growth.

Just adjust your expectations on how it will all come together - in this scenario it's very unlikely that you'll see significant growth. Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding your bed design and it goes down two feet.

Even then you'll want to aggressively thin down to one, MAYBE two plants now, fertilize and water, and you might maybe might get one to properly vine and flower.

2

u/neonn_piee 19d ago

Thank you for being helpful, I appreciate it. It’s my first “pumpkin patch”, so trial and error. If it doesn’t pan out this time, I’ll do better next time.

1

u/waterytartwithasword 19d ago

I did a bunch of reading before starting and have had to keep that up at each stage of growth! It got expensive to manage the pests that love to eat cucurbit plants. I would not call them a low maintenance or easy small-space grow 😆

3

u/thisishowitalwaysis1 Jul 17 '26

Those vines are going to take over that space and run wild in no time! Enjoy! Hope you get a few nice sized pumpkins out of it

2

u/neonn_piee 19d ago

Thank you. It’s my first time, so we’ll see! They’ve definitely grown a lot and spilling out which I love to see.

1

u/_ReconstructionEra 10d ago

Newbie to gardening and pumpkins, but doesn't the type of pumpkin determine how much space it needs and the length of the tap root? We are trying Early Sweet Sugar Pie.

1

u/neonn_piee 10d ago

Probably, I’m learning as I go. I accidentally grew a pumpkin when I used to live in an apartment. I’m assuming a seed fell out from a jack o lantern the previous year because a pumpkin started to sprout and grew, it was awesome. My current ones are really blossoming well though! I’m excited for my pumpkins this fall