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Pumpkin

Plant three seeds in June and eat the results next March, no fridge needed.

1. Dig a hole a spade deep, fill with compost, and mound soil back over it.
2. Sow 3 seeds on their edge 2.5 cm deep per mound, or plant one module-raised plant.
3. Thin to the strongest seedling once true leaves appear.
4. Water only at the base, filling a sunken pot or pipe sunk beside the plant.
5. Train the vines in a spiral around the station so they do not swallow the plot.
6. Stop each vine after 2 or 3 fruits have set so they size up properly.
7. Slide a tile or board under each fruit to keep it off damp soil.
8. Cut with 10 cm of stem when the skin resists a fingernail and the vine dries.

Soil

Very rich, deep soil with a barrow of compost per planting station, pH 6.0 to 7.0.

Sun

Full sun, 8 hours.

Water

30 mm a week at the base. Wet leaves invite mildew.

Spacing

1.5 m apart each way for vining types, 90 cm for bush types

Depth

2.5 cm deep, seed on its edge

Care

['Feed high potash fortnightly once fruits set.', 'Hand-pollinate on dull mornings, brushing a male flower into a female with the tiny fruit behind it.', 'Remove the earliest fruits if the plant sets six at once, otherwise nothing gets big.', 'Do not cut the leaves back, they are what fills the fruit.']

Harvesting

Harvest before the first frost, when the skin is hard and the stem corky. Leave a 10 cm T-shaped handle, a pumpkin without a stem rots in weeks. Never carry it by the stem.

Storing

Cure 10 days in sun or at 25 C to harden the skin, then store at 10 to 15 C, dry and airy, not touching each other. Good varieties keep 4 to 8 months. Cooked flesh freezes a year.

Grow it next to

Sweetcorn and beans, the classic three sisters. Nasturtiums draw aphids away. Keep away from potatoes.

Problems

[{'cause': 'Female flowers not pollinated', 'fix': 'Hand-pollinate in the morning, and plant flowers nearby for bees.', 'symptom': 'Small fruits go yellow and drop off'}, {'cause': 'Powdery mildew', 'fix': 'Water at the base, space widely, and remove the worst leaves. Late in the season it barely affects the crop.', 'symptom': 'White powder over the leaves in late summer'}, {'cause': 'Squash vine borer or root rot in waterlogged soil', 'fix': 'Mound-plant for drainage, and slit the stem to remove a borer then earth the stem up to reroot.', 'symptom': 'Whole plant wilts overnight'}, {'cause': 'Lying on wet soil', 'fix': 'Put a tile, slate or straw pad under each fruit as it swells.', 'symptom': 'Fruit rots on the underside'}, {'cause': 'Too much nitrogen', 'fix': 'Switch to a high potash tomato feed once the plant is running.', 'symptom': 'Metres of vine, no fruit'}]

Saving your own seed

Easy but it crosses with any squash of the same species growing nearby, so grow one variety or hand-pollinate and tape the flowers. Scoop, rinse, dry 2 weeks. Seed lasts 5 years.

Containers

Only small bush varieties, in a 50 litre pot, and expect two fruits. A large pumpkin plant covers 4 square metres, so a pot is a compromise.