Pumpkins are an important fall mascot, from jack-o’-lanterns to delicious foods. After all, what says Fall more than pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin pies?
Shea butter is the “superfood” for skin – rich in vitamins A, E and F, along with essential fatty acids and nutrients for healing while it moisturizes.
Pumpkins are an important fall mascot, from jack-o’-lanterns to home decorations to delicious foods. After all, what says Fall more than pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin cookies, pies, soups and pancakes?
We love our pumpkin – farmers grew about 1.3 billion pounds in 2014, a 17% increase from the year prior. They aren’t the largest grown crop commercially, but pumpkins are still an important crop. Illinois grew over half of all commercial pumpkins with 745.8 million pounds, far outpacing California at 192.2 million pounds. Most are “processing pumpkins” going into pie fillings or other canned pumpkin uses.
Pumpkins are part of the gourd family along with summer and winter squash, cucumbers, melons, cantaloupes, watermelons, and zucchini. They originated in Central America and southern Mexico. Now they are grown in almost all parts of the world.
We’ll share tips to be more successful in areas with insect or disease pressures.
Planting high quality seed into warm fertile soil at the right time is the beginning of a successful harvest.
This takes a little bit of planning but isn’t difficult. Pumpkins like a loose, fertile loamy soil with a pH range of about 6.0 – 7.5 as an ideal condition. Well-aged compost added to the soil will improve flavor and production. They will grow in less than ideal conditions but may need extra nutrition or care to produce well. A drip system on a timer provides consistent soil moisture, important for good production and flavor. A good layer of surface mulch helps.
Planting two or more seeds then thinning the smaller seedlings used to be standard practice with growers and gardeners. High-quality seed makes that unnecessary now, saving time, effort and energy when planting. You normally only need to plant one seed per hill.
Get the most out of your seed by planting flat or with the pointed end down. This saves energy for the roots and shoots, giving them a head start in the right direction.
Aurora inspects a Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Pumpkin is a warm-weather crop – the seed is sensitive to soil temperature and won’t germinate in cold soils. Young seedlings are also easily frost damaged, making a later planting often more successful. The seed won’t start germinating until the soil temperature reaches 60°F and can rot in cold and moist conditions.
A pumpkin seed will sprout in about a week at 70°F soil temperature but can take 2 weeks or more at 60°F.
Traditional planting times are mid-June to early July in the Northeast. The Midwest sows mid-May to late June, depending on the weather. A June 15 planting date gives enough time for most pumpkins to mature for a mid-October harvest.
Read soil temperature with a simple digital thermometer accurate from 50°F to 90°F. Insert the probe just slightly deeper than how deep the seed will be planted – about an inch – and get the reading.
Most pumpkins need 90 to 120 days to maturity. This means they take 3 – 4 months of warm weather to grow, flower and produce pumpkins before a hard frost.
Here are a few tools to help boost your success:
The first is knowing when the first hard frost arrives in your area. This makes sure you’ve got enough time to get a good crop. Use the First and Last Frost Dates tool discussed in our How to Plan for Fall and Winter Gardening article.
The second is choosing a variety better suited to your growing season. Choose a smaller pumpkin or a faster-growing one when limited on time.
A third option is using pumpkin transplants you’ve started indoors – much like tomato transplants. This gives you more time in a shorter season as you’ve started the “clock” on a 90-day pumpkin 14 days earlier by starting it inside.
Australian Butter Squash
The large shade canopy from the leaves controls weed growth, but some weeds will still get a foothold.
Spraying for weeds doesn’t work well!
Pumpkins are sensitive to most herbicides for home gardeners, producing fewer and smaller pumpkins.
It is more important to keep on top of weeds early in the season than worrying about them later. Weeds steal nutrients and stunt growth with young pumpkin seedlings than with more mature plants.
Manual weeding with a hoe or by hand is the most effective but also most labor intensive. Early cultivation with a weeding tool when the weeds have just emerged is very beneficial. Slide your hoe just below the surface of the soil to slice the weed stems.
Very young weeds emit powerful plant hormones called auxins. One particular auxin delays other seeds in the immediate area from germinating for about 4 – 6 weeks.
Harness this time delay by cutting the weeds before they grow their second set of true leaves. This gives your pumpkins time to get up and running.
Black plastic mulch limits weed growth around the pumpkins. It needs to be put down just after the seedlings emerge and removed at the end of the season. Commercial growers commonly use this method, and some home gardeners have found it to be worth the effort in high weed areas.
Planting into cover crop residue also works well. Especially spring planted cereal rye that has been mowed or weed whacked and let dry down for 2 weeks. Open up a small space around the seed mound or transplant when planting.
Pumpkins need well-drained soil, good airflow and room to soak up the sun. Wet and humid climates contribute to disease attacks. Space plantings 5 – 6 feet between hills and at least 10 feet between rows of pumpkins. This ensures good ventilation and sun exposure to control humidity under the leaf canopy, decreasing disease potential.
Mold and mildews can wreak havoc on a pumpkin patch if left unchecked.
Use a 20% solution of milk and water to fight them while boosting the soil biology. Milk and Molasses – Magic for Your Garden has the full details!
The same insects that love squash also love pumpkins – including squash bugs, squash vine borers, cucumber beetles and aphids. Squash bugs are a major pest problem with any squash. We’ve shared a recipe that seems to help in Squash Bugs and Ways to Deal with Them. Recent research shows inter-planting buckwheat supplies food for the tachinid fly. This fly is a parasite of the squash bugs.
Improve your pumpkin production with crop rotation, removing and composting plant residue in the off season and increasing the beneficial insect populations.
One technique the home grower has is growing pumpkins or squash in large containers. Move them to a new area each season away from insects and disease. Use a planter witha good soil volume and keep plastic mulch under the vines to reduce insect pressures.
Galeux d’Eysines Pumpkins
Pumpkin and squash need to fully ripen on the vine to avoid tasting bland and watery. The leaves and vines will start dying back and the shells will become harder as the squash ripens. They will resist indentation when you press your thumbnail in.
Pick all the ripe fruits before the first frost, otherwise, the storage life is shorter. Mulch unripe fruit heavily with straw or a tarp in the garden as the first frost approaches. Pick when ripened.
Harvest in dry weather, using pruning shears or a sharp knife to cut the vine. Leave two to three inches of stem attached. Do not pull the vine off of the squash when harvesting, as this will damage the stem or fruit and lead to early rotting.
If you have had any diseases or insects – mildew, mold, blight or squash bugs – clean the shears or knife between each cut to prevent spreading diseases between fruit. A dishcloth soaked in a 10% bleach solution works well.
Dry or cure pumpkins in the sun until their stems shrivel and harden. If you harvest in rainy weather, cure them out of the rain in a well-ventilated area. Move them into the sun when it returns.
Handle the fruit carefully to avoid bruising the flesh, even though the pumpkin may look and feel tough. Bruised flesh leads to shorter storage and can ruin other squash stored nearby.
Store in a cool, dry area. Ideal temperatures are between 45 – 50°F with 65 – 70% humidity if possible. The temperature is more important than the humidity, so if you have a cool but drier location, that will work.
Check the fruit regularly, as one bad pumpkin can ruin several others or possibly the whole lot!
See how to make the most from your home-grown pumpkin with our Roasted Pumpkin Puree and Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake!
Shea butter comes from the nuts of the Shea tree fruit which grows in Africa. The nuts contain oil that when extracted becomes Shea butter. It is a “superfood” for the skin; rich in vitamins A, E and F, along with essential fatty acids and nutrients for healing.
Shea butter has three main benefits that no other natural seed oil has. Other oils or creams may be good moisturizers, but will not heal the skin like Shea butter.
Moisturizing – The high concentration of vitamins, essential fatty acids and nutrients closely match what the skin’s sebaceous glands produce. This makes pure Shea butter the best choice for dry or damaged skin.
Reducing inflammation – One of the unique compounds in pure Shea butter is cinnamic acid, closely related to the cinnamon in your kitchen. Cinnamic acid is a strong anti-inflammatory agent. Pure Shea butter has exceptionally high levels of cinnamic acid bound to other compounds, making it effective against skin inflammation.
Smoothing – Pure Shea butter works with the skin’s natural collagen production to protect and nourish the skin. The high concentrations of oleic, palmitic and linolenic acids naturally found in Shea butter help protect the skin as well.
Only pure, Grade A Shea butter that has been prepared without chemicals or heat will have all of the above qualities.
Once Shea butter is exposed to chemicals for extraction, bleaching or excessive heat for refining it loses its healing qualities.
Most seed oils have two important parts, or fractions. The first fraction contain the moisturizing properties and the second has the healing qualities.
Pure Shea butter has an exceptionally large healing fraction, the largest of any natural seed or nut. This healing fraction contains important nutrients, vitamins and phytonutrients required to heal the skin. The best quality Shea butter has a healing fraction up to 17%, but is usually significantly over 5%.
Most other seed oils have a healing fraction of 1 to 3%. They will have an excellent moisturizing fraction, but little to no healing qualities.
This is why pure Shea butter has been studied and recognized as being effective for skin conditions including blemishes, itching, sunburns, small cuts and abrasions, eczema, skin allergies, insect bites, frost bite and surgical wounds.
Original Grade A Shea butter this way!
We have spent most of the past decade working with a dedicated small company who has developed personal relationships with the best Shea butter producers in Africa. They are members of the American Shea Butter Institute and will only accept the finest batches for their use.
We only source Grade A Shea butter – the finest raw and unrefined, handcrafted Shea butter that retains its full healing and moisturizing properties. These are tested for purity and healing quality by the Shea Butter Institute, assuring us there is no heavy metal contamination or chemical impurities.
You have the finest quality available at your fingertips! Simply click the link below to visit our store and choose which Shea butter suits you best.
Grow Great Pumpkins from Seed to Harvest
Pumpkins are an important fall mascot, from jack-o’-lanterns to delicious foods. After all, what says Fall more than pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin pies?
18 Shea Butter Benefits
Shea butter is the “superfood” for skin – rich in vitamins A, E and F, along with essential fatty acids and nutrients for healing while it moisturizes.