Cucurbita maxima

This amazing pumpkin was given to me by one of my staff members (Charlie). His mother grows it in Lesotho every year. In Lesotho the plants are basically left to fend for themselves and may occasionally get some water. This is a prolific, rampant and productive plant. With a spread of around 12 meters per plant, this one needs some space. So far we are getting around 8 fruits per plant and there are possibly more fruits tucked under a row of shrubs that the pumpkins are planted against. The fruits are a medium green that are variously specked with white irregular spots and green stripes. The flesh is not as dense as other local pumpkins, however the flavour more than makes up for this, it's rich and nutty and improves with storage.

Planting:

Pumpkins are a warm season crop that shout only be planted in spring and early summer. I'm of the opinion that pumpkins should never be planted after Dec as they are then very susceptible to mildew. Pumpkins are gross feeders when it comes to organic matter and water. They will handsomely repay any organic matter with large amounts of fruit. When we grow ours we make a hole in the ground similar for planting trees. 1m x 1m x 1 m and then fill this with compost and nothing else. In fact if you can spare the heap for the summer, planting a few pumpkins on the compost heap would probably be the best thing that you could do for them. Harvest when the stalks are brown and put them into storage.

Standard packet contains approx. 15 seeds

Petite packet contains approx. 5 seeds