Pumpkin · Sonīpat, Haryana, India
When to plant pumpkins in Sonīpat
Main outdoor window
21 Jan - 4 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
7 January
In Sonīpat, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
21 Apr - 21 May
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Sonīpat
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
16-30 Dec
Three weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
21 Jan - 4 Feb
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
21 Jan - 4 Feb
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
21 Apr - 21 May
Pumpkins through the year
Against the frost risk in Sonīpat
Why these dates
If your frost-free season is shorter than 110 days, start indoors and choose a smaller cultivar. Giant pumpkins are a long-season crop, not a beginner one.
Foliage dies at the first frost, but mature fruit tolerates a light touch. Harvest before a hard frost or the flesh will not store.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Pumpkins are timed from 3 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Sonīpat.
Also in Sonīpat
Other vegetables to time
Growing pumpkins in Sonīpat
When should I plant pumpkins in Sonīpat?
Aim for 21 Jan - 4 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Jan - 4 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pumpkins be ready to harvest in Sonīpat?
Expect to start picking around 21 Apr - 21 May, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will pumpkins tolerate?
Foliage dies at the first frost, but mature fruit tolerates a light touch. Harvest before a hard frost or the flesh will not store.