Emmalea Ernest, Extension Fruit & Vegetable Specialist; emmalea@udel.edu
In 2022 Gordon Johnson and I conducted two consumer surveys on specialty pumpkin preferences in Delaware. Consumer chose from more than 30 specialty pumpkin varieties and the most popular types were warty, blue, striped/mottled, white or flat. The most popular varieties from that survey are reported in WCU 31:7, the article is Consumer Survey on Specialty Pumpkin Preferences.
Although Gordon grew the pumpkins for the 2022 survey, we did not have yield data for the varieties. In 2023 I tested 14 varieties of specialty pumpkins with the consumer preferences in mind. The other theme of the varieties that I chose is that they are all edible (in some way) as well as ornamental.
The trial was direct seeded into raised black plastic mulch beds on June 23. The beds were on 7 ft centers. The five smaller fruited varieties were spaced at 2 ft in the row and the nine larger fruited varieties were spaced at 3 ft.
Among the small-fruited varieties (Table 1, gray), there were no statistically significant differences in yield, except that Orangita produced more fruit than Heart of Gold. The tested varieties were chosen because they had striped/mottled coloration, a flat shape or both of those traits favored in the consumer survey.
Table 1. 2023 Specialty Pumpkin Yields in Fruit per 30 ft Plot
gray=small-fruited, yellow = spaghetti squash, green = hulless seeds, orange = hubbard-like, blue = blue
Figure 1. Small-fruited specialty pumpkins tested in 2023
Among the large-fruited varieties, Millionaire, a striped spaghetti squash, produced the highest yields. Lakota, an orange and dark green striped squash with a unique angular shape also produced good yields. The red hubbard variety, Red October, did not yield well. These varieties are pictured in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Specialty pumpkins/squash: Millionaire, Lakota and Red October
I tested three varieties that produce edible hulless or “naked” seed (Figure 3). Kaki and Naked Bear produced good yields. Lady Godiva had the lowest yield of all the varieties tested and produced off-types that had unusual shapes and did not have hulless seeds.
Figure 3. Hulless pumpkin varieties
I tested three flat blue varieties which produced similar yields. In my opinion, the variety Jarrahdale produced the most attractive pumpkins of the three (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Flat blue pumpkin varieties
Some of the best performing varieties in the trial, Jarrahdale, Lakota, and Kakai, are open pollinated. Seed for these varieties is less expensive than that of hybrid varieties.