MIgardener: Turn This $100 MILLION Dollar Waste Product Into FREE Fertilizer!
Halloween is a time when over 1 billion pounds fo pumpkins are thrown at the side of the road every year worth an estimated $100 Million and of that nutrients are worth more than half!
Great idea. I generally put mine in a far corner of the garden and just let them rot but I think this year…. since I put in several raised beds, I think they can rot in there just as easy. Seeds already scooped out so no worries about that.
Thanks for this great information! I never thought about how nutritious pumpkins would be in the compost or directly in the beds. Thank you for the suggestion about giving them to my chickens too! I may be knocking on doors for pumpkins tomorrow. haha I think I will seek out some people's jack-o'lanterns and use them to start my winter collection in the "stank tank". Next spring, it will be part of the fertilizer juice I use to get things going. I plan to spread whatever is currently above ground in my pile on the beds this week, and then dig a hole to bury the current contents of the tank. Pumpkins and then whatever compost we collect in the kitchen this winter will get the tank going for next year.
Luke just wanted to say what a blessing your channel has been! I have learned so so so much from you! I have shared your videos with all my garden friends! Thank you for all your hard work😊
Another reason for not keeping a pumpkin is garden space. I'd love to grow some for pumpkin custard or a pie. I'm just limited in space. And I know that even in a limited space, much can be grown.
Since we have chickens, and their run has a compost area, that is where open pumpkins go. BUT, in our rural community brush pile/burn pile site, not many carved pumpkins show up there but the whole ones with seeds still in them and used as autumn decoration. Thus, since they literally throw them into the pile, many are broken open and that goes to the chickens. They eat the seeds and all excepting the outer most of the rind. The whole ones are deseeded and the flesh used in soups, stews, etc. The rind goes to the chickens and the seeds saved for growing some of our own.
Every year I get maybe 20 pumpkin sprouts in my small garden: those seeds seem to survive my hot compost (not hot enough, obviously). So I try to put all the seeds in the green bin to go to the city compost and any seed-free flesh goes to my worm bin. They love it!
No-dig gardening is way more easy. No need to dig a trench, only add 1 inch of compost to your raised beds each year. So just chop up your pumpkins, add them to the compost bin and cover them with the fall leaves that are trying to suffocate your lawn.
Luke, last year we got some free pumpkins, I tried to take out the seeds first before putting them in our compost, but a few still got in there and so this summer we got two free pumpkins from the compost … LOL 😂😁😆
in 2 more days, people in my neighborhood will start putting out yard trash to the side of the road for monthly pick-up. Looks like I should do a drive around the area this weekend looking for pumpkins! i usually don't get them anymore myself, but I did have one a few years ago that I tossed in the compost pile afterward. I let it 'cold compost' through winter since it rarely reaches freezing temps here (Texas), but the spring afterward, I had a bunch of pumpkin vines growing out of my compost bin! It's a very shaded spot though and my garden is too small for large vines, so I ended up turning them over back into the pile.
Why do people even grow pumpkins that can't be eaten, buy them for a one day holiday and then get rid in the first place? If those growers grew a different kind of squash/ pumpkin that was tasty and people actually bought some decorations for Halloween, this whole waste situation would go away.
Thank you for your content. Please consider giving whole (uncarved) pumpkins to your local goat or chicken homesteader. Our animals love pumpkins and it is a natural parasitic for them.
I believe it’s somewhere around 3 million lbs of pumpkin goes to waste a year… just mound up for nothing. That’s just in America. It may be a little higher than that but it’s a lot that just get wasted and thrown out.
38 Comments
Did you just call them 'varmints'???
Is your inner 'Yosemite Sam' coming out??? LOL 👨🌾 😉
I thought so I will be putting mine 🎃 TOMORROW..thanks …🌱
I've always thrown my pumpkins into the compost heap, which eventually got into my garden.
Great idea. I generally put mine in a far corner of the garden and just let them rot but I think this year…. since I put in several raised beds, I think they can rot in there just as easy. Seeds already scooped out so no worries about that.
Thanks for this great information! I never thought about how nutritious pumpkins would be in the compost or directly in the beds. Thank you for the suggestion about giving them to my chickens too! I may be knocking on doors for pumpkins tomorrow. haha
I think I will seek out some people's jack-o'lanterns and use them to start my winter collection in the "stank tank". Next spring, it will be part of the fertilizer juice I use to get things going. I plan to spread whatever is currently above ground in my pile on the beds this week, and then dig a hole to bury the current contents of the tank. Pumpkins and then whatever compost we collect in the kitchen this winter will get the tank going for next year.
This could have been an email.
Luke why don’t you do that with all your food scraps? Wouldn’t it be beneficial to the beds through the winter
Too much lol
Will there be pumpkin volunteers from the buried seeds?
Interesting information, very educational. Thank you!
Might Biochar help with the odor from the pumpkin composting?
Cows also love pumpkins.
Luke just wanted to say what a blessing your channel has been! I have learned so so so much from you! I have shared your videos with all my garden friends! Thank you for all your hard work😊
I love your videos!
Luke, of all the negativities in this world, how do you come up delivering a good content with great enthusiasm?
Another reason for not keeping a pumpkin is garden space. I'd love to grow some for pumpkin custard or a pie. I'm just limited in space. And I know that even in a limited space, much can be grown.
Do you still do this in addition to the core gardening method in the spring? Or do you alternate methods?
Since we have chickens, and their run has a compost area, that is where open pumpkins go. BUT, in our rural community brush pile/burn pile site, not many carved pumpkins show up there but the whole ones with seeds still in them and used as autumn decoration. Thus, since they literally throw them into the pile, many are broken open and that goes to the chickens. They eat the seeds and all excepting the outer most of the rind. The whole ones are deseeded and the flesh used in soups, stews, etc. The rind goes to the chickens and the seeds saved for growing some of our own.
I will probably be doing both! Thanks for the great ideas~
Question wouldn't pumpkins start to grow in the spot you buried them in the year prior? What if you don't want to grow pumpkins?
Every year I get maybe 20 pumpkin sprouts in my small garden: those seeds seem to survive my hot compost (not hot enough, obviously). So I try to put all the seeds in the green bin to go to the city compost and any seed-free flesh goes to my worm bin. They love it!
No-dig gardening is way more easy. No need to dig a trench, only add 1 inch of compost to your raised beds each year. So just chop up your pumpkins, add them to the compost bin and cover them with the fall leaves that are trying to suffocate your lawn.
Luke, last year we got some free pumpkins, I tried to take out the seeds first before putting them in our compost, but a few still got in there and so this summer we got two free pumpkins from the compost … LOL 😂😁😆
My dad used to turn the hallowe’en pumpkins into Christmas wine lol.
in 2 more days, people in my neighborhood will start putting out yard trash to the side of the road for monthly pick-up. Looks like I should do a drive around the area this weekend looking for pumpkins! i usually don't get them anymore myself, but I did have one a few years ago that I tossed in the compost pile afterward. I let it 'cold compost' through winter since it rarely reaches freezing temps here (Texas), but the spring afterward, I had a bunch of pumpkin vines growing out of my compost bin! It's a very shaded spot though and my garden is too small for large vines, so I ended up turning them over back into the pile.
You need a wagon for neighborhood pumpkin collection!
I am going to go door to door tomorrow with a wheel barrow and collect as many as I can manage. Great idea!
5 millions
Pumpkins end up in my rabbit hutch. They love it.
Two machetes or axes, one teenager with too much energy after lots of candy. That pumpkin is dust and can be composted with no problem.
Probably at least half the $$$ for fertilizer
Wondering if you have millions of pumpkins sprouting in the spring! Do you just turn it over again. Never thought to put directly in garden.
Why do people even grow pumpkins that can't be eaten, buy them for a one day holiday and then get rid in the first place? If those growers grew a different kind of squash/ pumpkin that was tasty and people actually bought some decorations for Halloween, this whole waste situation would go away.
Great tip!
We compost pumpkins any time we have them
Lots of seedlings in the spring though
Thank you for your content. Please consider giving whole (uncarved) pumpkins to your local goat or chicken homesteader. Our animals love pumpkins and it is a natural parasitic for them.
I believe it’s somewhere around 3 million lbs of pumpkin goes to waste a year… just mound up for nothing. That’s just in America. It may be a little higher than that but it’s a lot that just get wasted and thrown out.
My neighbour's ducks and geese wandered over and ate all my scrap squash and pumpkins!