9 Best Pumpkin Varieties for Carving
Young or old, there’s simple pleasure in finding and carving a good pumpkin. The quintessential fall vegetables delight with their glowing faces and artful themes, and are perfect in the kitchen for tasty pies, soups, breads, and roasted seeds. To grow our own chunky jack o’lanterns, we’ve got the lineup of the best pumpkin varieties for carving, big and small, to fit a range of growing spaces.
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It’s October, and that means it’s time for pumpkins and other winter squashes to tumble off the vine and onto the front porch.
These hallmarks of fall are long maturing, some taking up to 120 days, and it’s a proud moment to harvest and show them off for the season. With a good storage life, they can last throughout the cool season, and tasty pumpkins do well with canning and freezing.
Pumpkins are one of the most fruitful crops we can grow for self-reliance. Packed with nutrition, they hold hefty edible flesh and seeds, and boast a long shelf life. And they have multiple uses. Good pumpkin carving varieties carry on generations of lighting up the darkness on a chilly Halloween evening.
The origins of the Jack O’Lantern date to Ireland, as does Halloween, with roots in an ancient Celtic festival. Before pumpkins, turnips were the first jack o’ lanterns, carved and lit with embers to ward off the restless spirit of Stingy Jack, who was destined to roam aimlessly due to his trickery (at least according to folklore). With immigration to America, settlers swapped turnips for native pumpkins, which were much better for lantern-making.
A pumpkin is made for carving when it has sturdy rinds and a uniform surface for cutting. It can be smooth with wide ribs or bumpy and warty, big or small, as long as it’s workable to cut and decorate.
Process the flesh from good eating pumpkins before carving, creating sweet pies or savory soups and casseroles. Roast the seeds for a snack, and enjoy the glow to ward off aimless wanderers and welcome little goblins. Here are some of the best pumpkin carving varieties to try.
‘Jack O’Lantern’
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botanical name Cucurbita pepo ‘Jack O’Lantern’ |
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height 8-10′ vines |
We’ll kick off the Halloween festivities with one of the classic pumpkin carving varieties. ‘Jack O’Lantern’ is a favorite variety from 1956 with uniform sizing and the perfect weight for designing our gourd masterpieces. At 10 inches tall and round, the symmetry sets the stage for dynamic cuts. Each hefty round weighs between 10 and 18 pounds.
‘Jack O’Lantern’ makes carving a science, bred to resemble the size of a human head. Optimal for scaring off “Stingy Jack,” the medium orange skin is smooth with fine ribs. ‘Jack O’Lantern’ is a hybrid cross of the Native American heirloom ‘Connecticut Field’ and ‘Golden Oblong.’
This pumpkin carving variety matures in 105 days. Sow seeds after the final frost in spring in warm temperatures (ideal soil temperatures at 70-90°F or 21-32°C).
‘Atlantic Giant’
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botanical name Cucurbita pepo ‘Atlantic Giant’ |
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height 15-20′ vines |
Go big or go home with these creature-feature pumpkin carving varieties. ‘Atlantic Giant’ can reach 200 pounds in optimal growing conditions and is a competition-winner among the group. Even if yours doesn’t grow so large, its substantial heft yields a ton of pumpkin for cooking, roasting, and carving.
With such large fruits, ‘Atlantic Giant’ takes a long time to mature at 120 days. It takes up a lot of growing space with sprawling vines and massive pumpkins that may measure four feet in diameter.
Sow two seeds per mound, thinning to a single seedling when they have several leaves. Allow ample spacing with 10 to 20 feet between rows.
‘Howden’
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botanical name Cucurbita pepo ‘Howden’ |
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height 10-15′ vines |
‘Howden’ is the benchmark of carving pumpkin varieties, developed for the decorative tradition by John Howden of Massachusetts in the 1970s. The bright orange gourds have thick, sturdy walls for optimal slicing. Strong handles (stems) remain attached to the “lid” for easy lighting.
With a good round shape and defined ribs, these classic pumpkin carving varieties are ready to adorn the entrance. Fruits weigh 18 to 22 pounds and reach 12 to 16 inches around. Individual vines need room to run and produce one to two pumpkins each.
‘Autumn Gold’
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botanical name Cucurbita pepo ‘Autumn Gold’ |
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height 4-7′ vines |
‘Autumn Gold’ is a vigorous and productive bush-type pumpkin variety that produces three to five sizeable fruits per plant. The medium-sized, 7 to 10 pound squashes are faster to develop than larger carvers, ready in about 90 days from sowing.
‘Autumn Gold’ is an All-America Selections winner for early-to-color and early-to-harvest qualities. The bright golden-orange fruits are uniform at 8 to 10 inches tall and wide. You can also harvest before full size to get decorating early.
These pumpkin varieties are ideal for carving and also for cooking with thick, medium-grained flesh that’s sweet and nutty. A good option for cold climates because of its faster maturing and frost tolerance, ‘Autumn Gold’ is also a fit for small beds with shorter vines. Consider growing the squash vertically to save space and observe the fruiting spectacle as they develop.
‘Big Max’
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botanical name Cucurbita maxima ‘Big Max’ |
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height 10-15′ vines |
‘Big Max’ makes another enviable jack o’lantern that can grow up to 100 pounds and 20 inches around. Walls are chunky at three to four inches thick. The variety is also good for eating, with yellowish-orange flesh (lots of it) for pies and canned purees.
‘Big Max’ is from 1964 and is a favorite among large pumpkin growers. It retains a rounded shape as it grows and has smooth orange skin with ribbing.
‘Jack Be Little’
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botanical name Cucurbita pepo ‘Jack Be Little’ |
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height 3-5′ vines |
Following ‘Big Max’ and contrasting the bigs in adorable fashion is ’Jack Be Little.’ The charming mini pumpkin is a hearty producer that yields six to ten fruits per plant. A small, faster-developing variety, ‘Jack Be Little’ grows in any size garden. Break out the small tools to carve these minis, at three to four inches in diameter and two inches high. They’re also prime for painting.
The tidy, compact vines of the dwarf variety suit container culture, making the perfect doorstep welcome. Use a five-gallon or larger pot that’s at least 18 inches deep. ‘Jack Be Little’ matures in 95 days.
In addition to decor in a pot or on the tablescape, these pumpkin carving varieties are good eating pumpkins and make a person-sized bowl for stuffing. They have an extended shelf life and store for up to a year.
‘Galeux d’Eysines’
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botanical name Cucurbita maxima ‘Galeux d’Eysines’ |
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height 10-15′ vines |
‘Galeux d’Eysines’ may be too pretty to carve, warts and all. The bumpy pumpkin is a beautiful addition to the group, carved, uncarved, and in autumnal cuisine.
In buff peach, the pastel gourds have raised outer skins and a unique texture. Sugars crystallize under the skin and cause the raised areas, and a bumpy pumpkin is a sweet pumpkin. The French heirloom has a high sugar content, is rich in soups and sauces, and is versatile in cuisine.
Also called the “peanut” pumpkin because of its rough shell, ‘Galeux’ has smooth, orange flesh. The 12-inch diameter rounds weigh 10 to 15 pounds. They store for up to six months.
‘Sugar Pie’
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botanical name Cucurbita pepo ‘Sugar Pie’ |
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height 8-15′ vines |
‘Sugar Pie’ is an 1800s heirloom and remains a favorite today for its particularly sweet, tender flesh, months-long storage, and compact rounds.
‘Sugar Pie’ bears red-orange rounds, flattened on the ends, that reach six to seven inches in diameter. Each weighs four to five pounds. Bred for cooking, the sugar pumpkins have dense, smooth, fine-grained flesh for both sweet and savory dishes. They’re also one of the best pumpkin varieties for carving, perfect for festive tabletop jack o’lantern decor.
At the early end of development, ‘Sugar Pie’ is ready in 95 days, though it can take up to 115 days to reach maturity.
‘Rouge Vif d’Étampes’
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botanical name Cucurbita maxima ‘Rouge Vif d’Étampes’ |
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height 10′ vines |
‘Rouge Vif d’Étampes’ is another pumpkin that may be too pretty to carve, but it’s showy in either form. The famous ‘Cinderella’ pumpkin is a melon-orange beauty and seasonal favorite from 1880s Paris. The heirloom is the inspiration for the fairytale princess’s cucurbit carriage.
‘Rouge Vif d’Étampes’ has large, slightly squat rounds with deep ribs. They reach one to two feet around and weigh 15 to 20 pounds. ‘Rouge’ has a mildly sweet flavor, best for baking and canning. The variety tolerates heat and humidity for growing during warm summers. They need over 100 days to mature.
