Pumpkin
Also called: يقطين · قرع عسلي · Yaqteen · Kaddu
It needs a lot of room but gives a crop that stores for months. Sow in late September and October to harvest in December and January; a well-cured pumpkin then keeps right through the hot summer.
The year at a glance
Each month is split in half. The outline marks now.
Stage by stage
Stage 1 of 9
Seed
Days 0–4
Seed
Days 0–4The seed sits in the soil taking up water and swelling. Nothing shows above the surface — everything is happening underground.
Do now
- Water lightly and often so the soil stays damp but never soaked. Letting it dry out between waterings kills the seed before it sprouts.
- Cover the surface with a thin layer of straw or compost to slow evaporation and steady the temperature.
- Label what you sowed and when. You will need the date to work out the harvest.
Watch for
- A hard crust forming on sandy soil after watering, which traps the sprout underneath. Break it gently.
- Ants carrying small seeds away — a very common problem in Qatari gardens.
In Qatar
Sow three seeds per prepared hole, 3 cm deep, in late September or October. A large seed that sprouts fast in Qatar’s warm soil.
Germination
Days 5–10The seed coat splits: a root pushes down and a shoot pushes up. The two seed leaves that appear are not true leaves — they are the seed’s own food store.
Do now
- Keep moisture constant. The first root is very fine and a single dry day can end the seedling.
- Remove any covering as soon as the first sprout shows, or it will stretch thin looking for light.
- Give bright, indirect light. Direct midday sun will scorch a new seedling within hours.
Watch for
- A long, thin, pale stem: the seedling is not getting enough light and will collapse.
- Sudden wilting with a pinched stem at soil level — damping off, caused by overwatering.
In Qatar
Up within a week. Keep the hole damp but not soggy, and watch for ants carrying the seed off.
Seedling
Days 11–24The first true leaves appear, shaped differently from the seed leaves. The plant is now feeding itself and the roots are branching fast.
Do now
- Thin crowded seedlings and keep the strongest. Crowding gives you many weak plants instead of one good one.
- Start watering less often but more deeply, to drive the roots downwards.
- Harden the seedling off — build up its sun exposure over a week before transplanting.
Watch for
- Yellowing lower leaves: nitrogen shortage, very common in Qatar’s poor sandy soil.
- Small holes or chewed edges, meaning snails or young grasshoppers.
In Qatar
Keep the strongest plant per hole and snip out the rest. Pumpkins need at least a square metre and a half each, so be ruthless.
Vine growth
Days 25–49The vines run two or three metres along the ground and root down at the nodes. Every leaf built now is part of the factory that will fill the fruit later.
Do now
- Train the vines in one direction, away from paths and neighbouring beds.
- Mulch the ground under the vines thickly with straw so leaves and fruit do not scorch on hot sand.
- Water deeply at the base only, and feed with compost tea every two weeks.
Watch for
- The big leaves wilting at midday and recovering by late afternoon — normal in Qatar’s dry air.
- Powdery mildew on the oldest leaves. Remove them and spray a milk solution.
In Qatar
Those huge leaves lose a great deal of water in dry air, so a thick mulch can save half your irrigation.
Flowering
Days 50–64Male flowers open first, then female ones with a miniature fruit already behind them. Only the female flowers bear, and pollen has to reach them.
Do now
- If nothing is setting, hand-pollinate: pick a male flower and dab it into the centre of a female one in the morning.
- Cut back nitrogen and raise potassium and phosphorus to support fruit set.
- Never let the soil dry out completely between waterings. Drought now makes the flowers drop.
Watch for
- Flowers dropping without setting fruit: above about 35 °C the pollen goes sterile. Get shade over it now.
- No pollinating insects at all — common on enclosed roofs and balconies.
In Qatar
Male flowers come first, then female ones. A walled villa garden usually has no bees, so hand-pollinate every morning.
Fruit set
Days 65–79The petals wither and the ovary behind them swells. Small, hard green fruits appear and grow day by day.
Do now
- Make watering perfectly regular. Swinging between dry and drenched causes most fruit cracking and rot.
- Support the fruiting branches before the weight breaks them.
- Add calcium if your irrigation water is brackish, to head off blossom-end rot.
Watch for
- A sunken brown patch at the base of the fruit: calcium shortage from irregular watering or salinity.
- Small fruits yellowing and dropping: the plant is carrying more than it can feed, or it is thirsty.
In Qatar
Keep only two or three fruit per plant. Slide a board or tile under each one to lift it off damp soil.
Ripening
Days 80–104The fruit stops growing and starts changing colour, turning its starch into sugar. Heat speeds this stage up.
Do now
- Ease off the water slightly to concentrate the flavour — but never to the point of wilting.
- Shade exposed fruit with the plant’s own leaves to prevent sunscald.
- Pick as things ripen. Leaving fruit on the plant stops it setting new ones.
Watch for
- White or leathery brown patches on the sun-facing side: sunscald.
- A small hole with rot inside, meaning fruit worm.
In Qatar
The skin hardens and turns orange, and the stalk dries. Ease off the water so the fruit stores well.
Harvest and curing
Days 105–135The fruit is ripe and its skin is hard. You cut it once, then cure it for a week so the skin hardens and it stores for months.
Do now
- Cut with 5 cm of stalk using sharp shears once the skin resists a thumbnail and the stalk has corked.
- Cure it a week in dry, airy shade. Do not cure it in direct Qatari sun, which scorches the skin.
- Lift it from the base, never the stalk, and store it somewhere cool and dry.
Watch for
- Soft patches on the skin: rot has started, so use that one first.
- Fruit cut before it is ripe stays flavourless and will not store.
In Qatar
A well-cured pumpkin will sit through a Qatari summer in a shaded spot, one of the few crops that carries the winter harvest into summer.
End of cycle
Days 136–165Production tails off and the leaves yellow. As the heat builds the plant stops setting fruit altogether.
Do now
- Bring in the last of the fruit, even the ones not fully ripe.
- Save seed from the best fruit on the strongest plant if you want to grow it again.
- Pull the plant and compost the healthy remains; bin or burn anything diseased.
- Work compost into the soil now, ready for the next Al-Wasm.
Watch for
- Leaving diseased plants in the ground carries pests over to next season’s crop.
- Bare soil under the sun goes dead. Cover it or sow a green manure.
In Qatar
Clear the vines after harvest; powdery mildew has usually finished them before the heat does. Keep other cucurbits out of that spot next season.
- Sun
- Full sun
- 150 cm apart
- Sow 3 cm deep
- Pot from 60 L
- Cucurbitaceae
Shade net from March
Grows well with
Keep away from
- Water
- Medium
- Salt tolerance
- Medium
- Heat tolerance
- Medium
20 L/week in winter, 40 L in summer
Soil preparation
Hungry, and it needs at least a square metre and a half. Dig a 50 × 50 cm hole and fill it with a half-compost mix — plain sand will not hold enough water and food.
Pests
Powdery mildew
- Sign
- A flour-like white coating on the big leaves, starting with the oldest.
- What to do
- Strip affected leaves for airflow and spray a milk solution (one part milk to nine of water) weekly in the morning.
Fruit fly
- Sign
- Small punctures in the skin of young fruit with rot spreading inside.
- What to do
- Bag young fruit in paper and hang pheromone traps around the edge of the plot.
Common problems
Small fruit yellowing and rotting
- Cause
- A female flower that was never pollinated. In walled gardens there may be no bees at all.
- Fix
- Hand-pollinate each morning: pick a male flower and dab it into the centre of a female one.
Sunscald on the fruit
- Cause
- Fruit exposed after wind or dead leaves strip its shade in April.
- Fix
- Keep leaves over the fruit, and cover any exposed ones with cloth or straw.
Picking
Cut when the skin is hard enough that a thumbnail will not mark it and the stalk has dried and corked. Cut with 5 cm of stalk — a pumpkin cut without one rots quickly.
Keeping
Cure it a week in dry, airy shade and then store somewhere cool and dry, where it keeps three to six months. Never carry it by the stalk.