Start of October Means It’s Pumpkin Time

If you’re from a place in the Northern Hemisphere you might be thinking to yourself, of course it is pumpkin time. It’s almost Halloween.

But for us in the Southern Hemisphere October is the month we can start growing pumpkins.

They are then ready in March / April next year.

But… I did find myself with some small orange pumpkins recently.

Exciting times all round.

Tiny Patch 2.0 Prep

When you are growing in a tiny patch, the preparation that goes into it is usually quite easy.

You are working within the constraints you have.

That could be the total size you have available. The budget you need to work within. Or even the time you can commit to growing.

My prep so far has consisted of killing or attempting to kill a bunch of grass where the tiny patch is. I need to bury more vines during the season.

Something that wasn’t as easy to do when I grew last time. But I did have a plan around that.

The other part to prep so far is to dig up the transplant area and get some more product in there. So far I used up the leftover insect frass from Inzectdirect.co.nz I had.

I also put some more biochar pellets I had into the area.

As I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I got some compost after doing this. And also this hand tiller tool to help out.

The ground is still full of tree roots big and small. And it seems during the off season something has decided to grow and bind the soil together a bit.

I dumped the compost into the Tiny Patch 2.0 in between the rain we’ve been having.

Seed Selection

This is always a hot topic amongst top growers out there. Even more so when you can get any great seed you would like.

Here in New Zealand it is currently very hard to get seeds into the country. I would say impossible. But that’s not entirely true.

For new growers and what I like to call the mid tier growers. It’s best to go with what you have.

Make sure it is Atlantic Giant, the variety you need to grow a giant pumpkin. Also make sure you have back ups.

So for me. I am starting a bunch of the seeds I got from the pumpkin I grew last season. Estimated weight of that pumpkin was 83kg.

Seed Starting Time

I started 3 of the seeds mentioned above to begin with. Unsure of how well they would germinate.

I should have tested germination months ago. But with them being the newest seeds I had on hand I went with those.

They all germinated. With one of them germinating super fast.

I transferred them to pots. I left them for an extra day before setting up the grow light above them. Thinking I had enough time.

I was also busy helping out on a short film shoot with an early start.

I was super surprised to see how fast that one seed had grown in the pot.

That seedling will be too “leggy” and not a good candidate to transplant later. The other 2 are breaking the top of the seed raising mix right now.

Backups

I started another 3 back up seeds as well. They are in the germination box with the heat mat.

As all 6 of these seeds are from the same pumpkin I don’t have as much pressure on making sure certain ones germinate.

Last year there was a lot of problems and the success rate on germination was very low. A lot of that I felt was down to the seeds being older.

If you can make sure you have backups staggered out. You never know what can happen. Having options helps you have a successful start to your giant pumpkin growing season.

Pumpkins in October

We don’t usually have pumpkins in October here in NZ. There might be some crown pumpkins saved from last season, but no awesome looking orange ones.

Jack O Lantern
One of my goals at the end of the 2022 pumpkin growing season was to keep a jack o lantern pumpkin for as long as I could.

It managed to survive until the 2nd week of October. Which was great. Didn’t quite make it to Halloween. But still a good effort I thought.

So along with my helper we managed to crack it open and get the seeds out of it.

We found that a bunch of them had sprouted inside the pumpkin and had started to grow. Something that can happen.

But there were some savable seeds in there.

We got those out and they are currently drying out.

Small Orange Pumpkins
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my Mum had a bunch of small orange pumpkins.

These are baby bear variety. I think.

There was a total of 6 orange pumpkins. All super solid. 2 of them have a funny mark under the bottom. It’s mainly cosmetic, but these 2 will be the ones I harvest seeds from.

The other 4 I am offering up for sale.

Orange pumpkins like these available in October in New Zealand are super rare.

If you read this and want 1 or 4. Get in touch.

Money from the sale of these pumpkins goes into running this site and equipment to grow with.

What Else

That’s about it for now . I still want to if the budget allows to upgrade a bunch of the watering system around here.

One thing I have been mindful of heading into this season is that I don’t need everything at once.

It’s all about prioritising what I need in what order as the season progresses. What is a must have, and what is something I can leave if I can’t source it or afford it.

How About You?

How are you feeling heading into this growing season? Do you feel you have things under control?

Or are you winging it and seeing how it goes.

Let me know by leaving a comment below.