Pumpkin Seeds

was just wondering if anyone has planted the seeds from your pumpkins and had any luck? what is involved? when can they be planted?

It just requires removing the seed from the pumpkin, cleaning them, and allowing them to dry. Then you can plant them next summer. Whether you will get anything usuable depends on the type of pumpkin. Most of the halloween types are C.pepo, which readily cross with all types of summer squash so unless they were grown in isolation, you could get pumpkini, yellow sumpkins, or scallopkins. They also cross with winter squash like acorns, delicatas etc. Most storebough ones will be hybrids, but usually unless cross pollinated will still give you a pumpkin but not exactly like the one you saved seeds from..

Thanks Farmerdill...I've always wanted to try this but never have. I saved a handful of seeds, they are cleaned and drying on the counter. Figure I'll find a spot in the yard that they can take over,( hear that pumpkin plants can get big), and see what happens! Roasted the rest of them for my husband. He loves them :):) Have a great day:):):)

Hi
I saved some a couple of years ago and planted them. We got some whoppers! But yes they certainly take over and scramble EVERYWHERE! so make sure you have plenty of space. We dug in a good lot of horse manure first and they seemed to love it!

thankyou. i'm not sure yet where they will be, but will make sure they have alot of room to grow.

I'm sure it is best to dry them, but we had 2 huge pumpkin vines that started in the flower bed after I just threw the guts in there in the fall.

i dried them and they are now in a baggy waiting for spring! thanks for helping.

One year I kept my unusual pumpkins and decorative winter squash in the garage all winter. I just couldn't throw them out with them still looking so nice. Anyway, I cut them open on Mother's Day. Some were as fresh as a new cantalope and others actually had sprouting seed in them! Another year I threw them in a compost type pile and they just started growing in the spring. They were not true, and didn't produce much more than flowers and neat, variagated foliage, but we got a couple of neat and different looking "pumpkins/squash" out of them.

LOL Sumpkins.

Is that because they grow in the basement next to the pump?

C. pepo is different from C. maxima - will C. maxima cross? Do I have to be careful about what I plant near them? How far away is 'isolated' for this?

-Sev

C. pepo does not cross with C. maxima. so you will be safe from your normal summer squash. Of course if you plant different C. maximas say a big pumkin and a Hubbard squash they will cross with each other. Never had it happen, but Purdue says C. maxima will cross with C.moschata. Since cucurbitas are insect pollinated, It takes a good deal of distance to isolate them. Most folks with limited area will bag the female blossoms and hand pollinate.

hum, ok. I saved seed from a store pumpkin - obviously maxima, it's standard big-orange pumpkin style.

The plants have come in, but no sooner did they all get 4-5 leaves (not sprouty-leaves, but actual maple-shaped big leaves) than one of them split its stem and is dying. :(

Guess it's too warm in my house or something?

-Sev

Actually most store (Halloween) pumpkins are C. pepo. I would not expect the squash family to do well as a house plant.

They are? I thought they were standard pumpkins! Big orange monstrosities with hard skins?

I'm not talking about mini-pumpkins, I mean the big ones. Those are pepo?

-sev

sev, i thought they were pumpkins too!

Most of the carving pumpkins are C. Pepo. Howden types seem to be most popular. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=pumpkin&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=pepo&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search&offset=120
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=pumpkin&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=maxima&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
Note that there is some confusion among vendors. The same pumpkin may be listed as C. pepo by one vendor and C. maxima by another. Farmers only look at productivity and market niche and pay little attention to botany.

Oh wow. So how do we tell if a pumpkin we bought is actually a pumpkin, and not a squash in disguise?

This is so neat. I never realized botany could be fun - I always ignored it in high school. Here, with some real use for it, I find it's interesting.

-Sev

All pumpkins are winter squash. Pumpkin is a term that grew out the market niche, Most folks think orange and a particular shape. There are of course other colors that are called pumpkins, because of thier shape. Cushaws are called pumpkins in the south because the traditional usage is pumpkin pie. Hubbards, butternuts, buttercups, kabochas etc actually make better pies, but "squash" pie is not a tradition. Most commercial "Pumpkin" pie filling is made from C. moschata. ( cheese pumpkins)

so how about the white "pumpkins" that our grocery stores were selling at halloween? are these pumpkins, they looked more like gourds on steroids, but made great jack-o-lanterns!!!

sevidra, who knew we would really need that info in life back then?

Cheese pumpkins! That's why the texture is so different! I'll have to check out the cheese pumpkins at some point, see how they work for me.

Squash pie... you know, I've often wondered how a butternut squash pie would come out, given how the pumpkin always seems a bit... cheesecake-y. Butternut has such a nice texture, I can't imagine it would make a bad custard.

Bhaugh, white pumpkins were in the link he sent on C. pepo - looks like they're squashy squashes, not pumpkiny squashes? If that makes sense?

Going to have to look up Kabocha - never heard of it.

-Sev
Learning a lot since coming here, woo!

butternut sqash pie actually sounds good! i love that squash, making it for thanksgiving dinner, maybe i'll put some off to the side and try it.........