Quality seeds for kitchen, cottage and native gardeners
Vegetable Seeds Catalogue
Pumpkin
Sds/g: 4-10 sd/g Feed Requirements: Moderate Usual Seed Life: 3-4 years
Cultural Notes:
- One of our favourite veggies to eat and grow. Great for soups and roasting and also for good old baby mush. The orange and yellow fleshed pumpkins also have excellent health properties as these coloured veggies tend to have high levels of Vitamin C, carotenoids, antioxidants and bioflavonoids.
- The seed will not germinate in the ground if the soil is still cold and plants are very frost-sensitive. Optimum germination temperatures for seed are soil temperatures of 22-33 oC. So it can be good to get transplants going at the end of Sept and get them out into the ground after your last frost. Once they are going they do not mind soil temperatures below the optimum range. A lot of pumpkin varieties need every possible day they can in order to mature and ripen properly in Tasmania.
- Pumpkins are pretty easy to grow once they are going and if you provide them with plenty of water and nutrients they will reward you handsomely.
- Plant 4-6 seeds in a mound with lots of compost. Space sprawling vines with a 2-3m diameter. If fed properly they will soon take up this space. These varieties can be impossible to grow in smaller yards but we have some varieties that produce a compact bush similar in size to zucchinis, space these 1-2m apart.
Problems:
- The biggest problem we have with ours is the native wildlife, with currwongs or ravens eating the new flowers and possums eating the ripening fruit. Downey mildew usually occurs in early-mid autumn, killing off the leaves. A damp cool spring can also bring on downey mildew and cause problems growth for seedlings, best to resow seed if this occurs.
Harvest:
- While pumpkins can handle a light frost or two a heavy frost will damage them. Good keeping qualities allow you to store your pumpkin well into winter. Best stored in a cool room (12 oC) with plenty of airflow and low humidity.
- Be sure to use damaged fruit first.
Sowing periods
This heirloom produces massive fruits up to 12 kg each!! The large pumpkins are oblong with pale pink skin. The orange/yellow flesh has excellent flavour and is not stringy, making it perfect for pies, purees and baking. The skin hardens as it matures making it an excellent ‘keeper’ for storing over winter. A good variety for cool - warm climates. 8 seeds.
A good looking and great tasting pumpkin with sweet, firm flesh with a delicate and mellow flavor similar to the taste of chestnuts. It is teardrop shaped and bright orange-red. Each plant will bear multiple fruits that weigh 1.8 – 3.5 kgs. Very versatile in the kitchen – use boiled, baked, in soups, stew, in risotto, steamed or sautéed. 10 seeds.
An heirloom originally from the late 1800s USA that is widely popular due to its sweet, fine flesh. Not a big scrambling vine, this smaller variety produces 4-6 round fruit, 15-20 cm in diameter and weighing up to 2 kg each. Stores well through winter. The flesh and skin are both bright orange. Great for pies, baking, soups and casseroles. 30 seeds.
Grow your own spaghetti! When cooked, this amazing oblong squash has tasty, ribbony flesh that can be topped with your favourite sauce! Baked, boiled or steamed, it is a delicious sweetly nutty vegie on its own, as well as a nutritious, high fibre, low-calorie pasta-substitute. 10 seeds.
~ Heirloom ~ Organic ~
An American favourite for pies and carving at Halloween. A high yielding variety of round pumpkins, averaging 2 kg (15-20 cm), with a deep orange skin. The sweet, fine textured yellow-orange flesh is a cross between Sugar Pie and Jack O'Lantern that was developed in the 1960s.
A nutritious pumpkin grown for the high oil & protein content of the seeds. The seeds, also known as pepita, have no outer casing so can easily be eaten raw, roasted, dried or pressed (for the oil). A good looking, prolific pumpkin with green & orange markings, weighs 5-8 kg. The flesh lacks flavour but can be used to feed the chooks or compost. 12 seeds.
Am I squash or am I pumpkin?? This versatile vegie can be eaten when immature (steamed or baked) in the warmer months, tasting of a mix between potato & pumpkin. Left to mature it produces a dry fleshed, long keeping pumpkin. Mature pumpkins have a dark green, ribbed skin with orange flesh and weigh up to 3 kg. Treated seed (thiram). 8 seeds.