How Well Do You Know Pumpkins? Take Our Quiz!

How well do you know pumpkin cultivation and lore? Take our short quiz to find out. The 5 questions are arranged approximately from easiest to hardest.

See correct answers at the end of the article.

1) What is the best advice for growing pumpkins among the options listed?
a) Plant pumpkin seeds in late summer for harvest just before Halloween
b) Grow them like summer squash
c) Grow them like winter squash
d) Pumpkins aren’t like squash and need their own unique growing methods

2) Pumpkin plants are susceptible to:
a) Powdery mildew
b) Sow bugs or roly poly bugs eating young seedlings
c) Heat stress
d) All of the above

3) Which statement correctly completes the following sentence?
The modern tradition of carving jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween arises from folktales that include:
a) A turnip
b) An Irish ghost captured inside a pumpkin
c) A headless horseman
d) American Indian spirits and totem poles

4) Which statement is true about pumpkins?
a) They are primarily from the species Cucurbita amicus
b) They are from the same species as large melons
c) Pumpkins for carving jack-o’-lanterns are a different species from mini decorative pumpkins
d) Pumpkins don’t come from a single species

5) Which is the correct statement about pumpkin plants?
a) They grow roots from nodes if stems are in contact with or buried in moist soil
b) They grow roots from anywhere along their stems (internodally) in favorable conditions
c) They grow roots on the bottom sides of stems between nodes only and only when in contact with moist soil
d) Pumpkins grown only an original root system don’t root from stems

QUIZ ANSWERS:

1: c) Grow them like winter squash

2: d) All of the above

3: a) A turnip

4: d) Pumpkins don’t come from a single species

5: a) They grow roots from nodes if stems are in contact with or buried in moist soil

See customized advice for growing pumpkins in your Southern California zipcode