Grow Your Own Food

our Australian personalized children's books
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Pumpkins 

Companion planting: 
Like: sweetcorn, marjoram 
Dislike: potatoes 

Sow in greenhouse in September, plant out end of October to early November, also sow directly in garden in October to early November. Harvest February (Golden Nugget only) to April.

Sow pumpkins in clumps into small mounds 80 cm apart, thin out gradually to one plant by mound. Sow in soil that has been enriched with a lot of manure. 15șC needed for germination. Mulch with straw and manure to keep plants moist. 

Varieties used:
Waltham Butternut (The Lost Seed)
Golden Nugget (Goodman Seeds)
Jap
Sugar Pie (The Lost Seed)

We preferred the taste of the butternut pumpkins to the Golden Nugget pumpkins, but we will continue to grow Golden Nugget as well, as they ripen so much earlier. 

Harvest: keep pumpkins on vines as long as possible. When cutting the pumpkins off, leave one metre of runner attached. Leave them in the sun for two more weeks, then store them in shed without them touching each other.

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