Thinning Pumpkin Seedlings [Don’t Make These Mistakes]
Thinning your pumpkin seedlings can be a painful experience the first time you do it. Here you have these perfectly great-looking baby pumpkins and it seems like a shame to cut them off. It’s always hard to decide which ones to save and which ones to snip. So here’s how I choose and thin my pumpkins.
Should I Thin My Pumpkin Seedlings
First things first. Why do we thin pumpkin seedlings and do we have to do it? If you follow my guide on planting pumpkins, or anyone else’s for that matter, they’ll tell you to plant somewhere between three to five seeds in each pumpkin hill.
That’s because the more seeds you plant, the higher the likelihood of success. It’s kind of like going to Vegas. The more coins you put in the slot machine, the greater your chances are of winning.
Unlike my experience in Vegas, however, oftentimes all or most of my pumpkin seeds end up germinating which means multiple plants growing in the same location. In comes the need to thin pumpkin seedlings.
Yes, you’re going to plant more than you want and then sacrifice some of them when there are too many.
What Happens If I Don’t Thin Pumpkin Seedlings
I experimented with this one year because I wanted to see if it really made a difference. I didn’t thin any of my seedlings. The answer is it does matter.
When I didn’t thin my pumpkin seedlings, they ended up competing for resources and underperforming. Instead of having one sugar pie pumpkin plant that produced 10 pumpkins, I had three plants that produced 3 pumpkins and a miniature dwarf. All of them were much smaller in size than they should have been.
Moral of the story. Don’t skip thinning your pumpkin seedlings.
When to Thin Pumpkin Seedlings
When your pumpkin seedlings grow to be about 2 to 3 inches tall, thin them. They should have 3 leaves on each plant at this point. You can see what they look like in the image. Two oval leaves and a third that is different.
Ignore the volunteer tomato that must have been in my compost. I’ll trim that too when I think out the seedlings.
Thinning will ensure the remaining pumpkin plants get the nutrients they need without excessive competition.
Don’t wait either, it may be too late. One year I didn’t thin my seedlings and instead cut back my plants when I realized they were overcrowding each other (about a month into their growth). This was a mistake. The damage was already done and my pumpkin plants weren’t set up for success. The result was limited pumpkins and smaller ones too.
How to Thin Pumpkin Seedlings
You're going to need some tools for this. At this point, the pumpkin’s main stem is very thin and small so you can use scissors or pruning shears. I like to use these houseplant pruners because they’re designed to isolate leaves and stems for precise pruning.
Before you get snipping, make sure your scissors or pruners are clean and sterilized. The last thing you want is to have used them on another plant that had a disease and transfer that disease to your new garden bed.
Snip, Don’t Pull
Another important thing you should know is that you don’t want to disturb the roots. That’s why I’m telling you to get some pruners or scissors instead of pulling them out of the ground.
I used to pull my seedlings out. I thought I was being careful, but you can never be too careful at this stage. Pumpkin roots are very delicate, and at this early growth stage, they are even more so. Trust me, your stomach will sink if you have to start over with new seeds.
I know it’s tempting to think you can transplant them. If you try, all of your pumpkins will die. I’ve been there, tried that. Learn from my mistake.
How Many Seedlings Do I Cut
This depends on a couple of things. How many you planted and how far you spaced them apart.
If you follow conventional guidelines and plant in pumpkin hills that are 5 to 6 feet apart (give or take a foot), you can thin your seedlings to two or even three plants per hill. If you planted 5 seedlings and they all germinated, trim two of them and leave three.
But if you’re like me, a suburban gardener with limited room, I plant my pumpkins in raised beds. I don’t space them 5 feet apart. That would be crazy. I’d get one pumpkin per raised bed.
In a raised bed I can control the soil quality and resources a bit better than in the ground. I plant my pumpkins only a couple of feet apart from one another, sometimes only a little over a foot away from each other. In this case, I thin my seedlings down to only 1 per location.
I often plant 3 seeds in each location. If all three germinate, I will trim two of them.
I do the same thing when I plant in containers. I plant 3 seeds and thin them so there is only one plant in the container.
Which Seedlings Do I Cut
I find the biggest, healthiest seedling and I save that one. I cut the others. Sometimes pests eat the leaves on some of my seedlings. If I have that happen, I trim those ones out.
Many times they will all look the same. Every seedling looks happy and healthy and they’re all about the same size. If this is the case, it’s not really a big deal which one you trim. Just pick one and go for it.
Where Do I Cut The Seedlings
Trim the seedlings at the soil line. Don’t dig into the soil. You don’t want to damage any roots. But get as low as you can to the soil line and snip it with your pruners or scissors.
If you don’t trim them at the soil line, they may grow back. I had this miracle happen to me once. I didn’t trim too low and 3 days later, the pumpkin had risen from the dead again.
Thinning Pumpkin Seedlings Conclusion
Thin your pumpkins to maximize your success of growing larger and tastier pumpkins
Thin pumpkin seedlings when they are 2 to 3 inches tall and have 3 leaves
Use sanitized scissors or pruners to trim them, do not pull them out of the ground
Depending on how you spaced your pumpkins and where you are growing them, thin them to 1 to 3 plants per location or mound
Keep the best looking and biggest seedlings, trim the others
Cut them at the soil level so they don’t grow back and be sure not to disturb the roots
Cole Sperry has built an extensive suburban garden at his home in Riverside, CA. He is a proponent of sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint, as well as eating closer to what nature intended. Today Cole can be found in his backyard garden experiementing with new gardening techniques and buidling garden memories with his children.