If you’re looking to grow pumpkins this year and are worried about the amount of space that they’ll take up, then you’re not alone. With a single plant taking up 90cm of space, it can be easy to think that you don’t have room.
However, we’ve found that it’s possible to grow pumpkins vertically to save you lots of space in your garden. So in this article, we’ll show you exactly how to grow pumpkins vertically.
Contents
Choosing the Right Pumpkin Seeds
While you can grow any type of pumpkin vertically, we’ve found that miniature or medium varieties are the best choice as the pumpkin is less likely to break the vine whilst it’s growing. We’ve had good experiences with smaller pumpkins such as ‘Baby Boo’ or ‘Jack-Be-Little’.
If you’d like to try your hand with larger pumpkins, we’d recommend adding extra support (such as a hammock out of old cloth) underneath them as they grow to stop putting too much strain on the vine.
Building Your Pumpkin Trellis
Building a pumpkin trellis can be as simple or as complex as you want your structure to be. For an easy life, you can simply attach a wooden trellis to an existing fence and plant the seeds beneath it.
If you don’t have a fence we’d recommend that you use a string or wire plant support netting, held up between 2 bean poles to create a frame for your pumpkins. You can then plant the pumpkin seeds a 10cm apart in the ground beneath the netting and slowly train the vines on the net as they start to grow.
At the bottom of this article, you can see some examples of how people have created their pumpkin trellis.
Training the Vines
As your vines start to grow, you’ll need to regularly attach them onto the netting. To do this, wrap the vine carefully around the net and loosely tie it to the netting with a piece of gardening string. As they continue to grow, the vines will start to climb on their own, but they’ll need a few weeks of training before they can be left to themselves.
Vertical Pumpkin Growing Tips
Growing pumpkins needs a bit of careful planning to make sure that they grow to their full potential. Below are our 4 top things to consider to make sure that your pumpkins reach their best potential.
Plant At The Correct Time
Pumpkins take between 80 and 120 days to be ready to harvest, depending on the variety that you’ve chosen. It’s important to plan when you’ll plant your seeds to make sure that you can harvest them at the correct time.
Choosing The Right Space
Pumpkins require full sunlight to grow to their best, so make sure you plant them in an area of your garden that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day.
If you were planning to plant your vertical pumpkin patch in a shady area and don’t know what to plant there now, take a look at our top 10 shade loving plants to fill the space.
Temperature
Pumpkins are not frost-hardy, so make sure that you plant them out after the last frost in your area. If you’re wanting to give your plants a head start, then you can start your seeds off in a greenhouse, inside (learn more here) or in a milk jug greenhouse.
Watch Out For Pests
Squash bugs can attack your plants and ruin your crop of vertically grown pumpkins. We’d recommend regularly inspecting the undersides of the leaves and removing any eggs or bugs by hand. If there are too many bugs to handle, we’d recommend using neem oil or insecticidal soap to control the issue.
Harvesting and Storing Pumpkins
Most pumpkin varieties are ready for harvest between 80 and 120 days from sewing. To check if they’re ready, give them a gentle tap and listen to the sound that it makes. If you hear a hollow sound, it’s ready to harvest.
Once picked, store your pumpkins in a cool, dry place to keep them fresh.
Growing Pumpkins in Containers
If you don’t have a garden then you can still grow pumpkins vertically in containers, as long as you’ve got a sunny space for them. We’d recommend using a deep and wide container, and follow the same steps as you would for a garden bed.
You can read more about growing the right container for your plants here.
Vertical Pumpkin Garden Inspiration
There are so many ways to create a vertical pumpkin garden. Here’s a few images of some of our favourites from around the web.
Conclusion
Growing pumpkins vertically not only saves space but also adds an intriguing visual element to your garden. The relatively straightforward process helps you to get more produce with less space, making it a great technique no matter the size of your garden.
If this post has inspired you, then you might be interested in exploring our 7 creative vertical gardening ideas.
