Basic questions on growing pumpkins. I live in South Carolina and generally I'll buy a few pumpkins each year for Halloween. Last year I saved a few seeds to see if I could grow some instead of buying them, and planted them at the edge of my garden on Easter Sunday. The plants themselves have done very well, and I've managed to keep them from taking over everything else. I've got several pumpkins now, more than I thought I would have had, and it seems more blossoms are putting off pumpkins.

Oddly, we've had a cooler spring with more rain than usual. This has helped the garden extremely well, but I've noticed that a few of my pumpkins have turned orange. Several others are starting to turn orange also. I've done basic searches for growing pumpkins, and ask a few local farmers, but I fully don't think I'm getting the correct information.

How soon after pumpkins start to grow do they turn orange? Is what I describe typical? Did I plant them too early? Are they any good to leave? will they last until autumn? Should I rip these plants up and start over? If I continue to grow more, is there anything i can do to get them to grow bigger? these are pretty good size, but need to be twice as big for a typical Jack 0 Lantern.

I was under the impression that one could plant them, let them grow, and in the fall they would begin to turn orange. Most people seem to have a problem of pumpkins not turning orange, mine is the opposite.