Pumpkin
Pumpkins and squash are warm-season vines from the Americas, grown almost everywhere summers are long enough to swell the fruit. Frost-tender but otherwise easy-going, they are a global garden and field crop led by China and India.
How it grows
Pumpkin grows on a trailing vine that sprawls along the ground, where the fruit rests.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 410 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits pumpkin
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±50° · soil pH 5–8.5.
Growing calendar & hazards
Sown after the last spring frost, the vines sprawl through summer and the fruit is harvested in autumn — winter squash cured for storage, summer squash picked young.
- Frost. Both ends of the season must be frost-free; frost kills the vine.
- Heat & drought. Blossoms drop and fruit aborts in extreme heat or dry soil.
- Mildew. Humid weather coats the leaves in powdery mildew late in the season.