The Life of Halloween Pumpkin
Pumpkin, as a must-have item on Halloween, it can be easily found in supermarkets or farmers markets.
When you look at the pumpkin in your hands do you know how it came from?
This article will show the process of how pumpkin seeds becoming Halloween decorations in your home.
◉ May , Sowing
Farmers usually begin to sowing pumpkins in late spring and early summer.
Pumpkin seeds cannot germinate in cold soil. Most of the UK’s pumpkin farms are in the south.
◉ May ~ September , Growing
Growing pumpkins need a lot of water. The farmers will gradually reduce water use when the pumpkins turn to orange.
The weather is always a challenge, this year it was very dry when the farmers planted them so they had to irrigate it.
When the pumpkin sprouts in one week later, farmers need to adding fertilizer to help promote the healthy growth of the pumpkin.
Pumpkins are a hard crop to establish, being particularly susceptible to slugs.
So as to make sure it produce healthy pumpkins, the farmers must often weed them.
◉ September ~ October , Harvest
The timing of the harvest is critical. Trying to sell all pumpkins by 31st October can be a challenge. Nobody wants a pumpkin after Halloween! Farmers will be busy from September to October in order to catch up with Halloween.
Pumpkins are all picked by hand so the days are long and tiring. For example, the Bells Brothers Nurseries Ltd’s harvesting teams will lift about 40,000 pumpkins per day start at 7.00am. The only mechanisation is transport from field to pack house.
Farmers will pick the hard shells and bright orange pumpkin to be the Halloween pumpkins.
After harvest, pumpkins can be kept for months.
◉ Selling
Selling to farm shop and supermarkets is the most direct way of output. like the Essington Farm.
Most farms will sell direct to the public, either from farm shop or direct from farms, they take the tractor and trailer down to the fields for people to pick their own.
Halloween events will offer on the farms, also you can pick your own pumpkin by yourself this Halloween!
