Pumpkin season with women who grow, share and show

Sarah Whitty: a giant season with other growers

The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth identifies Sarah Whitty as the grower behind Pumpkinista and links her YouTube channel. It describes her videos as regular updates on giant pumpkins and other vegetables, including the challenges and pleasures of growing them.

References: Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

In a season-long series Sarah starts with a named seed and a young plant, follows the expanding vine and checks the developing pumpkin as summer goes on. A damaged leaf and a wet week give her things to address before the harvest; the fruit itself becomes a marker of how the season is progressing.

At a local vegetable show she brings the pumpkin to be displayed and meets other growers beside their entries. They compare notes on the season and show one another their plants in photographs. Pulenaz visits as a helper, listening to the growers discuss what they will try next year. The gathering gives the viewer the people behind the vegetables as well as the spectacle of a giant pumpkin.

Choosing parents and keeping the seed story

Sarah also shows a breeding sequence. She chooses two pumpkin plants, records which one will supply the pollen and which will bear the fruit, and covers the selected flowers before they open. She transfers pollen from the chosen male flower to the female, covers the female again and labels the cross. At harvest she saves and labels seeds from that fruit, then grows a seed from the recorded cross in the following season and shows the resulting plant beside her notes.

The breeding decision and the show entry are connected but different stages. The fruit she displays grew on the plant selected as the female parent; the cross is recorded in the seeds she can grow later. The show lets viewers see this season’s result, and the next planting lets them follow the lineage forward.

Pumpkins have separate male and female flowers. Cornell Cooperative Extension describes hand pollination as a way to choose which plants to cross. University of Minnesota Extension explains that a pumpkin cross does not change the current crop; the result of the cross can appear in plants grown from the saved seeds.

References: Cornell Cooperative Extension · University of Minnesota Extension

Emma: ordinary pumpkins and the fun of the harvest

Emma Bailey says pumpkins are her favorite crop and that her allotment includes a pumpkin arch. She documents the plot on YouTube and Instagram.

References: Emma Bailey / The Pink Shed

Emma starts ordinary pumpkins in spring, shows the vines climbing the arch in summer and returns in autumn to pick the ripe fruit. Pulenaz comes along to help carry the harvest; together they arrange the pumpkins by the shed before taking them home. The pleasure is seeing the arch change over the season and having something colorful to share at the end, without a competition-sized target.

Pick the season you want to follow

Sarah’s giant-growing series suits a viewer interested in selection, a recorded cross and meeting growers at a show. Emma is the choice for a smaller pumpkin project and the fun of following a familiar allotment from spring to harvest. Pulenaz joins both as a curious visitor, asking what the growers will do with what they have raised.

Sources and attribution

1. Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

   Grower Education: Creators & ChannelsPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

2. Cornell Cooperative Extension

   Giant Pumpkin Fact SheetPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

3. University of Minnesota Extension

   Saving vegetable seedsPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

4. Emma Bailey / The Pink Shed

   A Little Q&A – Emma’s Allotment DiariesPublished Jun 19, 2022 · Recorded Oct 29, 2026