"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Wikipedia says pumpkins are a warm season crop and in the US most grow
in Illinois and are planted in July.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin

Now obviously the US is a big place and has different climates in the
north and south but in my experience pumpkins need a long growing
season to allow the fruit to reach full size and to ripen. Here they
grow between last frost and first frost, about 8 months, even so a
number are not full size or ripe as the vine keeps flowering and
setting fruit up until death. I grow table (not cattle) pumpkins and
in that time I get about 30 mature fruit (100kg, 250lbs) per vine. The
vine is quite large!

If it is too cold to plant until July how long can the season be, two
or three months? Does this mean that each vine only ripens the first
set fruit in the limited time? What kind of yield per vine do they
get?

Could somebody with relevant experience who is not too far from
Illinois shed some light please.

David you'd know that I'm nowhere near the locale you're asking about, but a
USian in another ng who visits Oz often said that the pumpkins we have in Oz
aren't pumpkins but marrows.

I know she's not a gardener at all so probalby has no idea what she's
talking about and she and I don't like each other so we tend to butt heads
often, but that comment may be worth keeping at the back of your mind.
Another poster in that thread suggested that our gramma may be closer to the
US 'pumpkin'. I've still go no idea about the subject even though I've read
the US 'Seed to Seed' on the topic. I've often wondered aobut using a
Queensland Blue in a sweet pie and the thought makes me gag - certainly a
savoury pie, but never a dessert.