Selecting your Giant Pumpkin Patch

How Big Should my Giant Pumpkin Patch Be?

The simple answer is as much as your can provide. This will vary for every grower.

Top growers are looking at around 900 square feet per plant. That’s 82 square meters when working in metric.

Don’t let patch size put you off growing a giant pumpkin. I’ve grown in very tiny areas and produced a pumpkin.

A diagram illustrating land cost and size.

Growing Giant Pumpkins No Matter your Patch Size

No matter where you are you can grow a giant pumpkin. The more space you have available the better. But I’ve grown pumpkins in small areas. Some areas have been ridiculously small in size.

Consider the Following for your Pumpkin Patch Selection

  • Good Access
  • Level Ground
  • Good Sunlight
  • Free Draining Soil
  • Nutrient Rich Soil
  • Access to Water

Good access

You want to be able to access your pumpkin patch. Firstly to tend to it during the season. And to move the pumpkin at the end of the season. This can be a challenge for some people growing in their backyards.

Level ground

Level ground makes it easier to work on. Allows the pumpkin to grow without a sideways force which could cause problems. Uneven ground could cause leeching of nutrients away from the plants root system.

Full sunlight throughout the day

Giant pumpkin plants love sunlight. Having a location that gets sunlight all day or as much as possible will help.

Good free draining soil

Having soil that won’t get water logged is ideal. Any water that pools could starve the plant to be starved of oxygen.

Free draining and non compacted soil allows for easier root growth and expansion. This is why growers will use walking boards in large pumpkin patches.

Nutrient rich soil

Ideally you want your soil to be balanced and have nutrients ready to feed your pumpkin. I talk about this more in the soil prep section. But compost piles or sites used to grow other things could be an option for some.

Access to water

Pumpkin plants love water. Making sure you have access to water for your pumpkin patch is a must.

You can’t rely on just rainfall. This can be hard if your only supply is tank water.

Other Notes Around Pumpkin Patch Selection

The points outlined above are all important. Having as many of those sorted as possible is advised.

But…

Not everyone has access to the land for a full sized patch.

Grow with what you have access to. 

Remember to grow in soil. Giant pumpkin plants grown in large pots or troughs will get rootbound and not produce any fruit worth mentioning.

Different Types of Pumpkin Patches

Part of Tim’s raised pumpkin patch. Which has produced multiple NZ record breaking pumpkins.

My Tiny Patch 2.0 is in my back yard and is work in progress. So far it’s produced a 83kg pumpkin.

Jared’s smaller pumpkin patch was able to produce pumpkins over 500kg.

Aarons patch was able to produce a 700+ kg pumpkin.

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