No, pumpkins are definitely not the least efficient. With large fruited pumpkins you can get 10 to 30 tons per acre.

A few years ago I thought about growing peanuts until I learned how little they produce. They only yield about 3-4 thousands pounds per acre.

1 acre is 43560 square feet. So pumpkins would give around a half pound per square foot. Peanuts would give about 0.1 pounds per square foot. Obviously these are at farm-scale plant spacings and you should be able to plant more efficiently in the home garden so yields will increase somewhat.

Rodney

Don't measure in pounds per sq ft, measure in nutrient value per square foot.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes are the two most productive plants to grow in terms of nutrient value.

Squash can be combined with other crops such as corn so that there is effectively zero cost to growing the squash. I planted 6 hills of squash with corn on one side and watermelons on the other. The squash grew into and through the corn and when the watermelons were finished, the squash covered that area too. The result was a harvest of 55 squash in the 8 to 10 pound range from 6 hills planted. The squash plants covered an area of roughly 8000 square feet. This took advantage of areas that would have been wasted otherwise. Just plant the corn and wait about a month to plant the squash. Choose an appropriate squash variety and pretty much ignore them other than some minor weeding.

I planted regular orange pumpkin, kabocha and watermelon the past summer. The yield was dismal. Of course I had some plant culture and disease/insect issues. But they still use a lot of garden area.

Gardening is a pleasure, but clearly yield should be taken into consideration.

I'll need to consider what to grow next season. There are so many things to consider.

I agree that clearly yield should be taken into consideration but the yield you got - 2 pumpkins per vine - is far below normal.

Granted they require some running room but I would suggest the real issue is either pollination issues or your soil, your nutrient and water quality issue rather than the crop itself. Squash/pumpkin varieties have very strident nutrient requirements, especially nitrogen supplements at specific times in their growth cycle..

As to less productive crops that require a great deal of room for what you get - in addition to peanuts, spring green peas comes to mind.

I regularly grow kabocha and average 8-10 squash per hill.

Dave

I don't know about the efficiency, but they are one of the most FUN things to grow!
My hubby is a professional pumpkin carver Pier 39 in SF for several years, many wineries and pumpkin patches)
We've acquired seeds from some different pumpkin/gourds. A few years ago we got seed for giant pumpkins and got a couple of 300 lb ers ( I know the record breakers are around 2000 lbs these days, but they were still HUGE in our book!) and last year we planted some hybrid seed from some of those really warty ones and got a crazy array of pumpkin/gourds! Some were yellow, green, striped, black, orange, lime green. All had some warts on them! Some a lot, some just a few!
We grew them on our septic mound so we didn't have to water too much after they were established, but we did have to water, so we didn't plant them this year due to our severe drought here in CA.
We had so many we ended up putting them out on the street with a sign in English and Spanish warning that they were grown on a septic system and shouldn't be eaten (although we use manure to feed our plants on a regular basis, covering our butts!)
Any way, we just do it for fun! Nancy

Well, by all means do not plant anything close to septic system. The roots can damage it.

Fun is one thing, but produce is another thing. We all have limited land space, and we grow the things that have the highest value, convenience, or the FUN you mentioned.

I just do not have the room anymore to grow a few pumpkins for Halloween. We do not even eat them.

Red Sun, I totally agree that if you're growing pumpkins for Halloween then your space would be better used.

THat said, there are several pumpkin varieties that produce some of the best winter storage vegetables you can grow -- like Musque de Provence pumpkin.

I give the M de P just as much space as I would zucchini, but plant it either on the edge of the garden and let it run into the lawn, or next to the potatoes and let it run over the potato patch (a trick I learned from an old Maine farmer). They get huge and I use them all winter in soups, stir fries, ground nut stew, pumpkin bread. So, definitely one of the most productive plants per square foot in my garden.

Another trick I learned from an old New England farmer -- dig a hole, then fill it back in with 1/2 manure and 1/2 the soil you just dug out, and plant the pumpkins in that hill.

I often grow large squash up trellises and tie a fabric sling to the trellis to support the ripening fruit. It's a fairly efficient use of space as long as you aren't growing enormous pumpkins. I've also grown them around tall crops as Fusion Power does, though my tall crops are indeterminate tomatoes. I just guide the squash vines as they grow so I still have paths to access the tomato plants.

It sounds like yield was not the problem, but simply growing something you do not eat. I have several areas that I hope to develop into perennial beds in the future but am not ready to do much of anything yet. By allowing the pumpkins to grow in such areas, they out compete many of the weeds and I begin the process of building soil.

I also like to grow pumpkins in beds where things are just getting started, to fill in the gaps. In a few years, my roses will fill out the beds, but in the meantime, allowing pumpkins to grow in the area out-competes weeds there too. Of course we love to eat them. We make desserts, soups, enchiladas, gratins, etc. I also have an easier time storing them than I do potatoes or other storage crops. It also helps my (nonexistent) fall decor budget.

Red sun, the county came to inspect our mound septic system during the time they were growing and for the first time we didn't get a notice to get rid of excess vegetation(weeds)! So apparently they weren't concerned.
I'll tell you, they will site you for ANYTHING!!!!!!!
We had 1 non-running vehicle on the property (out here almost EVERY property has at LEAST one!). The guy had a trainee with him and cited us for an unlawfull junkyard! LOL We stormed down there with pics that it had been removed and got the citation taken off! Nancy

We never have any problem with the authorities, unless it touches city/town property (road).

My concern is on the septic system itself. The roots can degrade the system capability.

The chart from Johnny's Selected Seeds is crap. They have the chart to sell their seeds.

See for 100' linear feet:
Watermelon 200 seeds. Even the row is 6' wide row, you do not need one see for each 6". The yield is 70 melon, or 1.5' each melon.
Winter squash: again 200 seeds. 6" per seed.

Some other things may not be right either.

Do not trust the info from someone who wants to sell you something.

Regardless of the seed/plant spacings, Johnny's 40,000 pound yield per acre for pumpkins is consistent with the 10-30 tons per acre figure I gave in my previous comment. I got my figure from an Auburn University publication and they aren't selling seeds.

Edited to add link.

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: Pumpkin Production (yields are on page 8)

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 19:03

So pumpkins are the most efficient crop. Maybe not by calories. Who would have thought that. I always thought heading cabbage was king by weight, and in a warm climate, sweet potatoes by calories (here, Irish potatoes by calories).

I appreciate Johnny's because they humanely trap and release critters near a source of water. For that reason alone they get my business. It must be such fun to watch pumpkins grow. I'm envious !

I am considering a large food pumpkin crop in the orchard, in between the trees. What is the spraying schedule for SVB, and what pesticide?

Musque de Provence is resistant to SVB, in case that helps. I've never needed any pesticide for it. Every other pumpkin I've tried to grow fails miserably (SVB I'm sure).

tishtoshm -- thanks for the pumpkin gratin and enchilada ideas!

This post was edited by elisa_Z5 on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 18:59

Elisa, you are welcome. For the enchiladas the combination that I have liked the most included pumpkin, hominy, soyrizo and greens. If not cooking for vegetarians, then chorizo works as well too.

Pumpkins do well where I am at in NM and so I have learned to love them different ways. Pumpkin also goes well with both green or red chile and is fabulous with coconut milk for a Thai style soup.

The other thing is that I never seem to keep butternuts. I just cooked three that were spoiling (I will freeze them). Granted one had cracks, but what does everyone do to keep them healthy?

Redsun, I'm going to look into the growing of pumpkins with the county. I guess pumpkins roots will go as deep as they need to to find water. They have a list of what grow and what not to grow.
Thanks for pointing that out. Nancy

My back yard is about 10 x 80 feet, so i am trying to use space carefully. I have not grown pumpkin. One time years ago i planted one butternut squash. Just one. It grew two vines, one 10 feet long and the other 20 feet. I pkayed bumblebee with a paintbrush, and it set many squash that got huge, far more than we could use.

Still, it is too much of one thing, so though though yield is good it does not serm to be the best use of my limited space. When the drought is over i might put one in my front lawn to duke it out with the bermuda grass.

For value per sf, i felt that shallots were a great deal. For nutrients, just 6 each of cut-and-come-again lettuce, kale and spinach fed us a handfull leaves every day all winter, so i sm planting twice as much, and it takes hardly any space.

In terms of productivity....Last year I grew 6 'Dickinson Field' pumpkins (borer-resistant C. moschata) in an enriched compost pile, 3x8 feet, outside the garden where the vines could run all they wanted. I harvested 300 pounds of pumpkin, which is way off the charts. We just finished the last pumpkin puree from the freezer.

I had another planting of butternuts blooming at the same time, and I think both crops benefited from improved pollination.

Wow planatus, 300 lbs in 3x8 feet? i do not think anything else could approach 1 lb pe square inch! I wonder jow my neighbors would feel if i put the compost pile on the front lawn, and then planted pumpkins...ha!

I love how we've gone from pumpkins being the least productive crop to them being the most productive crop :)

tishtoshnm -- thanks for the added cooking ideas! I was going to ask you for recipes, but then realized there were loads online. Still, it's always good to hear what people prefer. Yes -- coconut milk in pumpkin soup! (we do curried)

planatus -- I'll grow anything moschata. Glad to hear about yet another SVB pumpkin.

Elisa, I found the big pumpkins overwhelming so this year I went little, with pie pumpkins, and I miss the big ones. There is a "neck pumpkin" version of Dickinson Field that is on my gotta-grow list (Sandhill Preservation Center has seeds). It goes to 40 pounds.

The vines of these big moschatas do run! One ran 15 feet to a storage shed, went up the side and crossed the roof and came down the other side. I've had crop failures when some OP moschatas bloomed alone, so I always plant a few butternuts that bloom at the same time, which prevents pollination problems.

Ha! Great run away pumpkin story.

This is making me want to grow loads of pumpkins next year. I canned and froze a lot last year, so didn't grow as many this year since we haven't finished them all. Now I want to try all the Dickinson Field ones.