Howden Pumpkin

I have grown this variety for 8+ yrs now and love the fruits it produces! Every year, there is a great abundance of both the "Connecticut" type and the more oblong "Howden" type. I pick my favorite, largest pumpkin and save my seeds for next year. We get a dozen+ of carving size from 3 vines that will absolutely take over. They have zero issues climbing fencing and setting and ripening fruit on flimsy, vinyl-coated, rolled fencing without the stems breaking which is incredible given the weigh from 10-30 pounds! It's also a variety that does well with my garden style of "If he dies, he dies"; I do not baby them, period. Squash bug metropolises, humidity from warm days and cool nights, still blooming and ripening fruits after a 2nd frost (less than an hour from Green Bay, WI), chickens invading vines and scratching, teenage child chopping off full vines accidentally while moving the lawn… you name it! This pumpkin is a beast! seeds last years even in conditions like room temps and sealed in ziplock baggies. Germinates at about 8-10 days WITHOUT heat mat in a basement with average temps of 63/64. Flooring, drought, 39-40 degree nights for 7-10 days in JULY, these vines have a purpose. I have not cooked them but they're edible! My chickens get 1-2 weekly come December to supplement their pellet diet when they can't free range. These are just as perfect as you can get! For fun, for food, although they don't last as long as the Cheddar wheel pumpkins I grow… 3 months, give or take, depending on temperatures from my insulated but non-heated garage.