Cinderella pumpkins, or Rouge Vif D’Etampe (their correct name), are indeed the best pumpkins to grown in your garden. I am very adamant about this for numerous reasons.
Sure, all gardeners have their favorites; favorite cukes, favorite tomatoes, favorite peas, but for me, I change things up every year. I try different cultivars, and generally never plant something twice, unless it was a real superstar in my garden and my kitchen.
I mean my garden produce needs to put on a show and dance for me all season to get a call back for next year.
But pumpkins are different. My first year gardening I planted the Cinderella pumpkins, and they are the only plant that ever got invited back every single year to my garden.
If I could grow a field of them, I would, that is how much I love them.
Why I only grow Princess Pumpkins
Rouge Vif D’Etampe are heirloom French pumpkins that have a striking deep red-orange color and look like a giant wheel of cheese. They were very popular in French markets during the 1880s.
So why is it called a Cinderella pumpkin? It is rumored Disney used the Rouge Vif D’Etampe as the design inspiration for Cinderella’s carriage. It does, after all, look like a carriage fit for Disney princeses.
Call it by its correct name, or common name – it doesn’t matter to me – in the end, I call them all pies.
But if you want to plant them, search for Rouge Vif D’Etampe on your seed packets, or you will be on some wild endless glass slipper chase through the kingdom.
Cinderella pumpkins – all the reasons they belong in your garden
Growing season – harvest – storage
Cinderella pumpkins need a 100 day growing season, which works exceptionally well for me in my short season.
I’m a northern gardener, and I have trouble finding very reliable, hearty cultivars for my area. Varieties I choose have to produce, and they have to produce quickly. With a short season, it’s sometimes hit or miss if I get some crops indoors before the first snow hits.
That first snow for us can be as early as mid-September. Yes, it is as bad as it sounds.
So if you’re like me and you want to carve pumpkins for Halloween, you need a sure-fire hit.
My Cinderella pumpkins are always the first to set, and always the first to ripen. I usually get my pumpkins indoors before September and with proper care and storage can last for months. I gave away two pumpkins in January that were still in perfect condition.
Disease resistance
The plants are also disease resistant to powdery mildew, which in my garden is a big deal.
I seem to struggle with powdery mildew with my pumpkins and my squashes.
In a bed where I had a few mounds of different pumpkins, all but the Cinderella pumpkins succumbed to powdery mildew. Nothing I did seemed to matter, and I ended up pulling all the plants leaving behind only the Cinderella which continued to thrive and produce all season.
I stopped planting other pumpkins; it just wasn’t worth the hassle!
Cinderella pumpkin yields
Last year I planted four seeds and wound up with 18 reasonably large Cinderella pumpkins. I had a few small ones, but generally, they were all over 20 pounds.
Each one regardless of size was perfectly round, beautifully flat, and vibrantly colored a deep red-orange.
It’s like that every year; they set quick, set heavy and produce right up to the end of the season and ripen perfectly. These pumpkins are my most reliable crop every single year.
I’ve planted other pumpkins and have never had the production and quality that I get from my Cinderella pumpkins.
Why Cinderella pumpkins belong in your kitchen
Cinderella pumpkins have bright orange creamy flesh that is perfect for baking. Oven roasted they produce a pumpkin puree that is neither watery or bitter. These pumpkins work for sweet and savory and can enhance a pumpkin spice muffin as well as a bowl of creamy pumpkin soup.
Preparation
Cinderella pumpkins are easy to prepare in the kitchen. Their flatness makes it easy to roast two at once in the oven. They are easy to deseed, and once cooked the flesh pulls easily away from the outer shell. The puree freezes beautifully and stores for up to a year.
From one single large twenty pound pumpkin you can expect to process about 20 cups of puree. That’s a lot of pumpkins!
The roasted pureed Cinderella pumpkin is not as watery as most and does not require a long draining time with a cheesecloth.
The taste is mild, slightly sweet and creamy and puts canned pumpkin to shame. The puree makes the most beautiful pumpkin pie.
You can find an excellent tutorial for making fresh pumpkin puree over at Back to our Roots.
Measure your pumpkin before you freeze it, so you always pull out what you need. I save mine in 1 cup and 2 cup increments, perfect for a pumpkin pound cakes or savory soup.
And if you want a great recipe for that pound cake, I found this one for a cinnamon cream cheese coated pumpkin pound cake.
Oh and don’t forget to roast those seeds too!
Storage
Cinderella pumpkins last a long time before processing. These pumpkins are keepers and store exceptionally well over the winter. Kept in a cold area, I was able to save mine for over five months. The recommendation is twelve weeks, but even after five full months, my pumpkins were in excellent condition.
You do not need to bake and freeze all your pumpkin at once. If you have somewhere to store your pumpkins whole, they last for a long time before needing to be processed.
Some folks use a mild bleach solution on their pumpkins; I choose to give my pumpkins a good spray with hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for 5 minutes before I wipe and dry them. Never had one rot on me, and the skin always stays fresh.
How to grow a bumper crop of Cinderella pumpkins
Seed start early
Cinderella pumpkins take about 100 days to harvest. I give myself a bit of leeway by seed starting indoors about three weeks before the last frost of my season.
Plant in 4-6 inch pots, with a good seed starting soil, like Pro-mix.
Good lighting is a must, as is good air flow.
Harden off for a week before planting out, usually two weeks after your last frost date.
If you have a more extended season, wait and plant your seeds directly in the ground.
Prepare your bed in advance
I cover all my beds with clear plastic sheeting as soon as I can clear the snow off. The clear plastic heats the soil in the garden beds up significantly and lets me plant out a bit earlier. The warmer beds also help with germination if you are planting directly with seeds.
Heating the beds also allows any weed seeds that are laying dormant to grow, get cooked and die before I even plant out.
The other important piece in preparing your pumpkin bed is to ensure that you fertilize it well. I like to add my Pro-mix fertilizer to my soil before I over with plastic, and then again when I plant out. Pumpkins grow fast and require nutrients to produce blooms, set, and grow all season long, so make sure they have what they need to thrive.
plant nasturtium seeds with your Cinderella pumpkins
I’m a big fan of growing flowers in my garden. In my small 600 square foot potager, I have as many flowers as I do vegetables. They attract beneficial insects, like ladybugs, lacewings, and bees, and add a great deal of beauty and charm.
When I pull my pumpkins at the end of the season, my nasturtiums are still going to strong. You can see them in the photo above how they were still healthy and vibrant at the very end of the season when the pumpkins vines were drying out.
But there is another reason I plant flowers all over my garden. I do find a benefit to planting certain flowers with certain vegetables to deter the harmful insects and to help improve the growing conditions.
I’ve read all kinds of conflicting information in this regard, but I know one thing for sure – I plant nasturtiums in my garden and I have never seen a squash bug on my pumpkins or squash. (knock on wood)
If you don’t believe me, plant them anyway, nasturtiums look lovely trailing along with the pumpkin vines.
Space requirements and what I do in my garden
You do not need a lot of space to grow cinderella pumpkins. The vines trail, but I don’t find they go crazy, and they are quite manageable. The vines get coaxed down our brick paths or out on to the lawn, and they never get in my way.
I have a 600 square foot inground raised bed garden. Our pumpkin patch is a 6×6 plot at the very back. I let the vines trail into the yard, over the grass, under the pine trees.
This year I planted eight vines. Last year, in that bed, I planted four vines with a bed of corn. No issues. I plant as tight as I can to maximize my space. I’ve yet to have yield issues with such close planting, but I water well all season and fertilize every single week.
When I was planting other pumpkins, I planted less to try to avoid crowding which contributes to powdery mildew. Since the Cinderella pumpkins are so resistant to powdery mildew, I pack them in. Even though I planted eight vines in a bed, they did not overlap as I let them wander and trail outside of the bed on the lawn and brick paths.
So long as you have room to let them wander, planting only takes a few square feet of your garden.
Hand pollinating pumpkins
No bees? Not enough pollinators? Sometimes this can be an issue, and you get lots of blooms, lots of starts, but your baby pumpkins fall off the vine. When pumpkins drop, it is usually due to lack of fertilization.
I have lots of bees in my garden, I created a buffet for them so they would come and hang around, but I still give my pumpkins every chance they have.
When a flower opens, I grab a stamen from another flower and manually pollinate with it. You need to go gentle and get as much of the pollen in there as you can. It is not always 100% successful, but it is another way to ensure a large crop of pumpkins come fall.
If you find your first set of baby pumpkins fall off the vine, give hand pollinating a try.
Water and more water
Water, water, and then more water. Pumpkins need watering. Not a sprinkle from a hose, they need a good deep soaking about every three days. I sometimes do it every two days if it is sweltering.
I set out soaker drip hoses and let them go for an hour at a time unless we have a good rain.
Pumpkin roots go deep as they search for water, the more you can give them, the healthier the plants are going to be.
Don’t forget weekly fertilizer
As I said earlier, pumpkins are hungry little beasts. They do need the weekly boost from fertilizer or compost.
I used a good all round organic fertilizer like Pro-mix Organic granular. I sprinkle it around the base of the plant, careful to not get it on the stem, and water it in with the hose.
A quick treat like this once a week and your garden bed will reward you with a healthy, beautiful crop of pumpkins.
Keep them off the wet ground to avoid blemishes
I put pieces of wood and upside down plates under the pumpkins for them to rest on. This helps keep them dry and off the ground.
Grass also surrounds my garden and the paths are brick, so I do not want to leave my Cinderella pumpkins to rest on either surface as they will create blemishes. The bricks will leave indents on the rind, and if you leave your pumpkins to grow in the grass, the bottoms will turn very yellow. You also risk the bases rotting on you if they are always sitting in a moist environment.
The pieces of wood under the pumpkins also allow the rain and wet to roll off the pumpkin and onto the ground under the wood instead of under the pumpkin.
Watch em grow!
Cinderella pumpkins grow quick. They are fun to watch in the garden due to the rapid growth spurts that they go through. It’s also fun to watch the turn from bright yellow to brilliant orange and then take their final transition to the deep red-orange they turn at the end of the season.
Then, of course, their inevitable transition into pies…..or jack o’lanterns.
Oh, and if you like garden-to-table type recipes you might enjoy this delicious gooey, rhubarb jam recipe that requires no sugar! Or check out my favorite pickle recipe that I salvaged from a 100 year old homesteading manual.
Or if you want a smokey kick to your pumpkin spice soup, check out this method for making your own smoked salt. The smoked salt is a perfect addition to any savory pumpkin recipe!
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Andrea Bonner says
We’ve lived Cinderella pumpkins since we were introduced to them several years ago. About 3 years ago I decided to save some seeds from one and have been growing them since. My problem has been vine borers until this year. I finally got the plants to grow healthy, or so I thought until just in the last few weeks one of my plants has started looking sickly and my first pumpkin started to rot on the vine. My second plant is doing well and I almost have one ready, but there aren’t any other fruit that are successfully growing to speak of. I’ve always had horrible squash bugs, but been able to keep up with them fairly well so far this year. I have great pollination. I have had high heat the last couple of weeks though, like around 100 F. Could the heat be a problem?
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Andrea, drought can cause all kinds of issues for pumpkins and Curbits in general. If the plant gets strained from lack of water it weakens their immunity and can allow diseases to take hold. As for squash bugs, I plant nasturtiums all around my pumpkins, squash, and cucumbers to repel squash bugs and I can tell you that it actually works.
My suggestion is to start with a new batch of seeds next year – do not save seeds from this year’s pumpkins. There are diseases that are seed born, and I wouldn’t risk next year’s crop. Mulch around the plants very very well. We had a very dry summer last year and my pumpkins suffered a bit until I put down a 4-inch layer of straw around the plants. Any mulch you use will help the ground retain moisture longer and will help prevent deep drying of the soil.
The mulch also serves a second purpose, it will keep the pumpkins off the ground, and help to avoid splashing of water from the soil to the plants. This is usually how diseases are spread in the garden, putting a layer between the soil and the plants is a good way to help prevent some of it from spreading. My other piece of advice is to make sure you do not plant pumpkins (or any squash for that matter ) in that same place next year. I hope that helps!
Lydia Brown says
Hi there! I was really inspired by your article here and scourged my entire city for seeds. I started them well in advance inside and they did wonderful. Then I had a bad hug infestation in my brand new planter bed that I had built and readied, so I babysat the seedlings. Then I forgot them in the sun and burnt them bad one afternoon. *facepalm* I was so sad. No store sold the plants anywhere. So I stuck the two crispy little seedlings in the bed, and a month later they have exploded. Completely unexpected. I may have crowded them, but I was really thinking they were goners. Anywho, sorry for the long story. I read that it is very difficult to transplant pumpkin. Is there any way I can train the vine or trim it? Any suggestions would be loved! Thank you thank you!!!
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Lydia, I totally know all about cooking my plants, I seem to do it every year to at least a few seedlings. Its good to hear that the seedlings still made it, despite all those speedbumps. They really are hardy little pumpkin plants.
Don’t trim your vines, trimming them will stunt the growth and the blossoms. I sometimes train mine up very sturdy trellises. You can train them up a trellis but you will need to hammock the pumpkins so they do not break off at the stem. They are strong, but I always err on the side of caution with my pumpkins. I make hammocks out of pantyhose (new ones!) and nestle new growing pumpkins in the hammocks. The pantyhose do not hold water and stretch as the pumpkins grow. Some years I grow them up because I love the way they look and it makes tending to the brick paths around my garden much easier. Other years I just let them go and grow wherever they want.
I find they do not wander too far, unlike other pumpkins. You also do not have to worry too much about overcrowding, just ensure each plant is growing in a different direction. You don’t want too much crowding of the leave because that’s a way to encourage dampness. Dampness usually causes issues with things like pests and powdery mildew. I find my pumpkins are very resistant to powdery mildew, but it can still happen if the leaves are overlapped too much.
In your situation, if the plants were severely overcrowding the leaves, with lots of overlapping I would pull one. At this point in the season, the likelihood of the plant thriving is low. It would need to reestablish roots, and will likely not put out any additional blossoms until it does. You could certainly try to do it, you never know what will happen. If the remainder of your season is perfection, that little plant might do ok.
T
Irene Holguin says
This by far is one of the best planting articles I have ever read. No fillers, all interesting information. My first try at growing pumpkins this year and I have never made a pie from scratch…excited to try. You now have a follower…thank you!
Laura Kennedy says
Oh, Irene, I guarantee you will LOVE these pumpkins. If you like baking with pumpkin, I cannot recommend a pumpkin more. There are sweeter pumpkins to be sure, but none seem to set and give me a harvest like these pumpkins do and I am guaranteed to have a freezer full of pumpkin puree every year for all my fall baking. Thanks so much for leaving such a lovely comment, it really made my day. Cheers!
Jackie says
I was wondering what you think about growing the pumpkins vertically or are the fruit too heavy?
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Jackie, these pumpkins can get quite large sometimes, so vertical growing – ahh I wouldn’t recommend it unless the structure was very sound, very strong and you used large hammocks to secure the pumpkins as they grew.
Patty F says
Approx how long is a vine of the Rouge Vif D’Etampe pumpkin. I grow a few smaller 1-2 pumpkins up over an arched fence and they do well. The Rouge Vif D’Etampe would have to be ground and I would love to add a few vines this season.
Great Article!
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Patti, the vines only go about 6-10 feet, but that is up here in the cold north. I have a potager style garden and my beds are fairly close. I grow my pumpkins in my furthest back bed and let them wander how they wish, and they never overtake another bed. They do grow up the sides a bit, but I don’t think I ever had a vine go past the next closest bed. I find the vines are more compact and they don’t take over the garden as other pumpkins can. I really hope you grow a few! Everyone has their favorite things to grow and for me, it’s my Cinderella pumpkins and chocolate stripe tomatoes. Can’t be without either! Cheers.
Dennell John says
Hi, I loved this article! I was just wondering how you clean and dry your seeds to plant. I purchased several of these pumpkins at my local grocery store and they have lasted so well. I’d love to save the seeds and try growing our own. Do you dry them indoors or outdoors and for how long? Thank you for sharing all your wonderful knowledge!
Laura Kennedy says
HI Dennell, great question!
I rinse my seeds under cool water to remove all the goop. When they are clean I add them to a piece of paper towel, or brown paper bag (space them out so they don’t touch) and let them air dry for about a week. Once they are dry I store them in a labeled envelope for the following year.
Pumpkin seeds are good for growing up to 6 years. Always mark the year on your seeds envelope too and dry more than you will think you will need. One year my seeds were not viable, no clue why that happened, but none of my seeds from the following year popped, but I had extra leftover from the year before.
Cheers!
Teri Herriott says
I bought a Cinderella pumpkin to try for my pies. It has a different smell than a regular pumpkin. Is that unusual ? It doesnt smell like a po pumpkin. I’m going to purchase another and cut it open and see if it has that same smell. It started to have soft spots, but was not rotten. Can you help ? Thank you
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Teri, If the pumpkin smells bad, there is something wrong. My Cinderella pumpkins smell sweet, almost like a combination between a cucumber and a cantaloupe with a slight sweetness to them. The scent is something that is hard to pinpoint, but my rule of thumb is if it smells off to me, I don’t use it for cooking. With that said, my cinderella pumpkins last me a really long time in storage. I have a few in my basement that I will still be using well into late December and I have never had one go off on me, but I have had things like squashes go off on me in storage well before their time, so it is entirely possible your pumpkin did the same.
Elizabeth says
Great article that I will bookmark for next season!! Do you ever save seeds from these to plant the following spring or do you suggest purchasing new seed each season.
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Elizabeth. I do save my seeds. These are heirloom pumpkins, and so long as they do not cross-pollinate they are perfect for replanting the following season. When my flowers first show, I cover a few of them with mesh, and when they open, I use the male flowers to pollinate. It’s not always a guarantee, but I manage to get a few pollinated this way. Hand pollinating this way guarantees that the pumpkins are not cross-pollinated. I usually tie a ribbon around the vine nearest to the pumpkins I manually pollinated so I know which ones I need to keep for seeds.
At the end of the season, I choose the best ones for seed saving. My pumpkins keep getting better and better!
Kelly Cochran says
Excellent read! So excited to try growing these ourselves. Thank you
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Kelly, you will not be disappointed, these pumpkins always seem to yield heavy for me. Even in bad seasons (like we just had), my pumpkins outperformed everything else. Thanks so much for leaving such a thoughtful comment it truly is appreciated. Cheers!
Victor Mulinge says
Hi,
Liked the whole story of Cinderella,quite encouraging.intending to get these seeds in KENYA ,AFRICA for a trial here with tropical climate.How can I get some?
Bravo
Regards
Victor
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Victor. I can save and send you seeds next spring if you don’t mind waiting for them. If you email me your address I can get a batch out once they are clean and dried for you to test. Email me @[email protected] If you are looking to plant soon you want to look for rouge vif d’etampes seeds as that is the true name of these pumpkins and usually how most seed suppliers list them for sale.