Pumpkin Seeds - All About Pepitas
Gardeners and those who sell seeds to grow pumpkins don’t often think about pumpkin seeds, at least not in the way that lets the average new pumpkin grower know all the wonderful types that actually exist. Here in the United States, it’s pretty much unknown to the general public that there are less than a hundred varieties of pumpkin seeds to choose from. Most of the time, the gardener’s choices are limited to whatever is being offered at their local nursery or favorite mail order catalog in terms of pumpkin seeds. And keep in mind that pumpkins not only come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but also in stripes and speckled varieties.
Pumpkins - Pepitas -- Sarah Crowder Photography 2012 ©
Of course, the all too familiar jack o’lantern orange pumpkin that is ever popular in pumpkin patches and the giant pumpkins are the ones most people are familiar with. But what if you needed to grow a Cinderella Pumpkin? Where would you find one?
What if you wanted a really tiny pumpkin? Or what if your pumpkin was meant for a pie? What if you wanted a giant pumpkin? What kind of pumpkin seed would you need to grow these kinds of pumpkins?
Pumpkin seeds - Pepitas -- Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons
Obviously, the beauty of pumpkins is that there are all kinds of pumpkins for all kinds of people. I think Henry David Thoreau said this eloquently as he talked about personal choices when he said:
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
He obviously was talking about his preference for a giant pumpkin. Or at least that is my theory. In that case, he would need one of the following varieties of pumpkin seeds:
Giant Pumpkin Seeds
- Atlantic Giant (the grandfather of all giant pumpkins)
- Big Max
- Big Moon
- Mammoth Gold
- Prizewinner
Now, if you have a Cinderella in your house, you might be wanting a pumpkin more suited towards a fantasy pumpkin and in that case, clearly you’d want to pick a seed
Cinderella Pumpkin - Pinterest, Lori Edwards
variety named either:
- Cinderella Pumpkin Seeds
- Cinderella Pumpkin
or
- Rouge Vif d’Estampes
Suppose you live in a tiny house or only want tiny pumpkins for tiny hands? The pumpkin varieties you should grow are:
Small and Miniature Pumpkin Varieties
- Baby Boo
- Iron Man
- Jack-Be-Little
- Jack-Be-Quick
- Munchkin
Small pumpkins for small hands need not even be pumpkins but acorns .
- Sweetie Pie
- Wee Be Little
There are many people who just want a regular old fashioned ordinary pumpkin, of which many varieties abound:
Regular Pumpkin Varieties
- Aspen
- Big Tom
- Connecticut Field
- Happy Jack
- Howden Field (the preferred variety)
- Jumpin Jack
- Pankow’s Field
- Standard Orange (both medium and large varieties)
Chocolate Toffee - Pumpkin Seed Bar
If you are a cook or a gourmet, cooking pumpkins have certain considerations:
Pumpkin Seed Varieties for Cooking
- Amish Pie
- Baby Pam Sugar Pie
- Dickinson Field
- Halloween in Paris
- Kentucky Field
- Little Boo
- Long Island Cheese
- Triple Treat