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(Best months for planting Pumpkin in New Zealand - cool/mountain regions)

• Harvest in 105-140 days
• Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed.
• Best planted at soil temperatures between 20°C and 32°C.
• Space plants: 90-120cm

A large trailing plant with yellow, bell-shaped flowers, pumpkin is frost tender. Most varieties will take up a lot of room . Grow them at the edge of your garden patch so that they can spread away from other vegetables. Butternut produces small to medium pear-shaped fruit with deep orange flesh . Buttercup are small to medium round pumpkins with dark green skin. There are a number of large pumpkins, some round and flattish - good for storage and eating - others will produce the "Cinderella coach" type giant round fruit which are not such good eating.

Harvest when the vines die off and the pumpkins' stalks are dry. Leave a small piece of stalk attached to the fruit to prevent damp causing rot. The fruit can be stored for months in a cool airy place. In some parts of New Zealand, they are stored on shed roofs.

Pumpkins sometimes need hand pollination if the fruit are not setting well.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Pumpkin

Cut up, remove the skin and roast with other vegetables or meat.

Your comments and tips

10 Mar 13 (New Zealand - temperate climate)

Hae just had a bumper crop of the Long Neck orange pumpkins, all from one plant. Dry clay soil even, although the seedling was planted in a pucket of compost that was dug into a hole in the clay soil. Watered daily, even in this dry summer, but not that much each morning. It had a large area to put out tendrils, which seemed to thrive in the dry conditions.

21 Mar 13 EB (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

Dont forget to dry your pumpkins before storing - ie wipe them with a weak white vinegar/water solution, dry them off, and keep them dark and dry. Squash dont store as well (as I found out, when I heard a distinctive POP in the middle of the night... drippy squash seeds everywhere!!)

22 Mar 13 Nathan (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I've grown a kumi kumi (Maori pumpkin) plant this year and have got quite a good harvest of large fruit. However I'm ot quite sure what to with them! Does anyone know if they're a good storing pumpkin? And are they any good for roasting or soups? How else can you cook them? I've heard they're not as flavoursome as other varieties, and alot of people use them like marrows. Kinda sick of stuffed marrow at the moment though!

04 Apr 13 Suné (New Zealand - temperate climate)

Emma, I sowed seeds from a store bought pumpkin this year and it did really well. I also grew Kumi KUmi but not sure what or how to cook with it so maybe we should try soups @Nathan.

04 Apr 13 Rachel (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

Does anyone have any idea when to harvest pumpkin seed pumpkins?

09 Apr 13 Nathan (New Zealand - temperate climate)

@Suné, I've asked around and yeah apparently kumi kumi is good in soups, as well as roasted, boiled etc and it keeps well over winter too. Will have to give it a try soon.

09 Apr 13 Guy (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Dry out your pumpkin seeds well before planting them - inside on a window ledge - I have just used the seeds from supermarket pumpkins - you can also spread them out on baking paper on a oven tray , mix some paprika , chilli powder , corriander W some brown sugar & Sesame oil , mix together then roast tell golden brown , either eat as a snack or on top of your pumpkin soup a large dollop of sour cream and pulsed up handfill of seed mixture YUMMO

13 May 13 chris jackson (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I have been storing my butternut pumpkins on a wooden rack in the garage.Have noticed that pumpin skins are quite damp in the morning.Can anyone tell me if this is normal;.cj

21 May 13 Ash (New Zealand - temperate climate)

We started a meadow garden in spring and now all the flowers have died down we have a very happy healthy looking pumpkin taking shape, I thank the happy bees we now have in our garden but is there any hope for it with the weather getting colder, it has a long way to go before it is a full grown pumpkin.

21 May 13 (New Zealand - temperate climate)

Ash, your pumpkin will probably be too cold to grow to full size .