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All About The Pumpkins
Pumpkin is a warm-season vegetable that can be grown throughout much of the
United States. Besides being used as jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween, pumpkins are
used to make pumpkin butter, pies, custard, bread, cookies and soup.Pumpkin is a
very tender vegetable. The seeds do not germinate in cold soil, and the
seedlings are injured by frost.
Do not plant until all danger of frost has passed, and the soil has thoroughly
warmed. Plant pumpkins for Halloween from late May in northern locations to early
July in extremely southern sites. If pumpkins are planted too early, they may
soften and rot before Halloween.
Vining pumpkins require a minimum of 50 to 100 square feet per hill. Plant seeds
one inch deep (four or five seeds per hill). Allow 5 to 6 feet between hills,
spaced in rows 10 to 15 feet apart. When the young plants are well-established,
thin each hill to the best two or three plants.
Pumpkin plants should be kept free from weeds by hoeing and shallow cultivation.
Irrigate if an extended dry period occurs in early summer. Pumpkins tolerate
short periods of hot, dry weather pretty well.
  
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