1 June 2020
Demand is increasing for on-farm family experiences and with Halloween falling around the school half term break, growing pumpkins and inviting the local community to your farm to pick their own pumpkins can be a rewarding way of tapping into this demand.
Developing a pumpkin patch can also provide a supplementary source of income that can easily be worked alongside normal farming operations, with only short term extra labour input required. It can also provide an opportunity for members of the farming family to develop an enterprise for themselves.
For growing field scale pumpkins, a well-drained sandy loam soil is preferable with a pH of around 6.5 and drilling can start from late May or when the danger of frost has passed. Using a maize drill, aim to establish a plant population of 10,000 per hectare, planting one plant per square metre with rows 0.5 metres apart. The variety Big F1 will yield big pumpkins for Halloween, although smaller ones will also be popular with younger children.
Weed control should be carried out before planting by cultivation of the seedbed and burning off the flush of weeds 5 days or so ahead of drilling. Fertiliser can be applied prior to planting in the form of a high phosphate and potash, low nitrogen product. In good growing conditions, the crop quickly emerges and plants will grow rapidly, covering the soil’s surface and inhibiting subsequent weed germination.
The rise of local community social media networks means that marketing your pumpkin patch is easily done and updates on opening times to match crop availability can be shared. Some thought needs to be given to managing traffic and people flow, with wet weather contingency plans defined beforehand. Shed space or a small marquee can be useful as a gathering point. Any extra provision in terms of photo opportunity backdrops, tea and cake, pumpkin carving area and so on are welcomed and can be developed according to labour resources available.
Jamie McCoy established ‘The Pumpkin Pantry’ in 2019 near Newcastle Emlyn, Ceredigion growing pumpkins for the first time, and planted a hectare by hand with the help of family and friends. A marquee housed a photo booth area plus pumpkin cake and pumpkin soup sales.
“It was a great way to meet and connect with the local community and people are still telling me how much they enjoyed the experience. The seasonal labour requirement in autumn fitted in well with our normal farm routine without the permanent intrusion into farming life,” said Jamie.
“We probably planted too big an area for the first go, but following Halloween we turned the sheep in to graze the pumpkins, so nothing went to waste. We started advertising our opening on local community social media, but word of mouth soon took over. We really enjoyed the experience and will definitely be repeating the exercise again this year,” said Jamie.
If you feel that you would like some support on your pumpkin growing journey, there are several farmers that have grown and operated a pick your own pumpkin patch available to give free advice through the Farming Connect Mentoring Scheme. Please click here for further details.