Pumpkins Begin to Show their True Colors

How can pumpkins be so different?

Look at all the different varieties of pumpkins we have growing! What are some of the features you find interesting? Weird? Cool? Are there some that you like? Why?

Pumpkins have genes like you and I. Different genes (as well as the environmental conditions) control how big pumpkins are, what color they might be and even whether they have warts.

Browse through the pumpkins below and comment on any you might to like to look at more closely.



















Look at those warts! I wonder what causes them?

























Do you think these pumpkins will remain green? What color will they be? How can they change from green to orange? What is going on inside the plant? What other fruits change color?




















How do you think a pumpkin plant can support such a large fruit? What do fruits need in order to grow?




















A white pumpkin! Do you think this has painting potential? Why or why not?




















Can a pumpkin plant support a greater number of smaller fruit or larger fruit? What do you think? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.




















What do you think the yellow specks on the pumpkin are?




















What would the best space requirement be for pumpkins? Do you think each variety might have different spacing requirement?




















Why do some pumpkins change color faster?

From Flower to Fruit

How does pumpkin fruit form?

The pumpkin fruit comes from the female flower. Pumpkins have separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant. The male flowers contain the pollen, which is transferred to the female flowers by bees. The female flower is made up of the stigma, style and ovary. The stigma is sticky and holds the pollen, which then travels down to the ovary, fertilizing the flower. The ovary is what develops into your pumpkin!



















Pumpkin plants just beginning to flower -33 days after planting.




















Closer view of pumpkin flowers. Why do you think the flowers are yellow? Why do you think pumpkins have separate male and female flowers? Why might this be important for the plant?





















What do you see inside the flower? Are bees the only pollinators of pumpkins?




















How many days do you think it takes for a fruit to form after it has been pollinated? What happens to the flower petals after the fruit begins to swell?

What questions do you have about pumpkin development?

26 Days After Planting

The pumpkins keep chugging along - this is what they look like after 26 days after planting. How are they different from 21 days? Do you see a difference among the different spacing treatments? What else do you observe? Leave your ideas in the comments below:

18 inch spacing
















27 inch spacing

















36 inch spacing

















Field Peek: 26 days after planting

The Planting of the Pumpkins

Small craft pumpkins. Little orange gems that you could paint, devour, or use for some other crafty purpose. Dr. Greg and I thought that these pumpkins would be ideal for you to start to understand how pumpkins grow and how different cultivars (or cultivated variety) have certain characteristics (some teeny-tiny, some are white, some are round or long) and grow in different ways.

We also thought it was important for you to realize that you can vary the space between your pumpkin plants and maybe change how many pumpkins you will get and maybe how many weeds you might have or occurrences of disease.

So these are the different pumpkins that Dr. Greg planted at the Mtn Hort Crops Research and Extension Center (MHCREC):




















This is how the pumpkins are spaced in the field. He planted four replications. Why do you think this is important? Leave your ideas in the comment area below!






















This is what the plants look like 21 days after planting the seeds:

18 inch spacing
















27 inch spacing

















36 inch spacing

















Field Peek: 21 days after planting

The Start of the Pumpkin Project

The pumpkin. There is something pretty cool in that little orange package. Carve it. Eat it. Kayak across a lake in it. There are so many kids of pumpkins. Gigantic pumpkins. Pumpkins with warts. Ghostly white pumpkins. Small paintable pumpkins.

Ummm, really fabulous pumpkin regatta












And there are so many questions about pumpkins. How do you grow pumpkins? What are the different kinds of pumpkins you can grow? Does it matter how far apart you plant your seeds? Do certain types of pumpkins grow better than others? Why? What are pumpkins used for.

This project is an opportunity for you to find out how pumpkins grow and how you can decide what might be the best kind of pumpkins for the mountains. Specifically, what is the best small pumpkin to grow in the mountains.

Dr. Greg Hoyt and myself, Liz Driscoll both work for NC State in the Horticultural Science and the Soil Science Departments. We love pumpkins. I (Liz) am simply pumped about pumpkins. We want you to watch with us as they grow and share your ideas and comments along the way. We hope that some of you that are reading this will come out to the pumpkin field and evaluate and harvest the pumpkins!

This is who we are:
Dr. Greg Hoyt - professor at NC State in Soil and Horticultural Science, based at the Mountain Horticultural Crop Research and Extension Center in Mills River, NC.








This is me, Liz Driscoll. I am Dr. Greg's sidekick. I promised I would rustle up interested youth and introduce them to the world of pumpkins. I work on NC State's main campus in Raleigh as an extension associate.