Presents
Life Cycle of a Pumpkin
Actors:
Farmer Vines
Pumpkin 1 Tendrils
Pumpkin 2 Female Flower
Seed 1 Male Flower
Seed 2 Bee
True Leaves Pollen
2 Seed Leaves
Farmer: What is a pumpkin?
Pumpkin 1: A pumpkin is a fruit. We grow on a vine like other kinds of squash.
Pumpkin 2: We can be bumpy or smooth, large or small, long or round. They can be orange, white, yellow, or red.
Farmer: Each year there is a new crop of pumpkins. Their hard shells have deep lines that go from top to bottom.
Seeds 1 & 2: We are the pumpkin seeds.
Seed 1: Pumpkins begin with us. We are white and have an oval shape. A tiny plant is curled up inside of us.
Seed 2: The farmer plants us in warm, moist soil. In about ten days, roots grow down into the soil. The roots take in water and food for the plant.
2 Seed Leaves: Then in the late spring,two of us pop through the soil into the sunlight. We are the smooth seed leaves. We use sunlight and air to make food for the new plant.
True Leaves: Then the true leaves appear. We are jagged and prickly.
2 Seed Leaves: The job of the seed leaves is done. We wither and fall off.
Farmer: During the early summer, the pumpkin plant grows more leaves. The plant grows quickly and soon becomes a vine.
Vine: We twistand creep along the ground, then send out thin tendrils.
Tendrils: We grab and curl around other vines. We twist around fences. We support the vinesas they grow longer and longer.
Vine: We bloom with many yellow flowers.
Female Flower: Some of these are female flowers. We sit on small, fuzzy, green balls.
Male Flower: Other flowers are male flowers. We are on long stems and have yellow powder inside the flower. The yellow powder is pollen.
Flowers: It takes a male and female flower to make a pumpkin.
Bee: I am a bee. It also takes us to make pumpkins. We move the pollen from male flowers to female flowers. When a bee visits the male flowers, the pollen sticks to our body and legs.
Pollen: I am the pollen. We rub off the bee as it goes in and out of the flowers. When we reach a female flower, the fuzzy green ball at the end of the flower begins to grow into a pumpkin.
Vine, Tendrils, and Leaves: All summer we grow and tangle together.
Pumpkins 1 & 2: Underneath the big leaves we are beginning to grow.
True Leaves: We are like big umbrellas. We keep the got sun off the pumpkins. We also help to keep the soil around the pumpkins from drying out.
Pumpkin 1: Growing pumpkins need just the right amount of water and sun. Too much rain will cause us to rot.
Vines: Too much sun withers the vines.
Pumpkin 2: The cucumber beetles and squash bugs can hurt us too.
Farmer:We spray the plants with insecticides or cover the vines with nets to protect the growing pumpkins.
Pumpkin 1 & 2: We grow bigger and bigger.
Seeds 1 & 2: Inside, the pumpkins form seeds and pulp.
Pumpkin 1: Outside, we are turning from green to orange.
Vines: We turn brown. Harvest time has come.
Farmer: I cut the thick pumpkin stem from the vine.
Seeds 1 & 2: Four months ago the farmers had only us.
Farmer: Now we harvest a wagon full of round, orange pumpkins.
Pumpkin 1: We will be sold at farm stands and stores.
Pumpkin 2: People cook us and use the pulp to make pumpkin pie, cookies, soup, and bread. Some pumpkins are fed to farm animals.
Farmer: Some towns hold a pumpkin festival to celebrate the fall harvest. Sometimes there is a contest to find out who grew the biggest pumpkin.
Seed 1: Inside the pumpkin are many of us. Some of us are roasted to be eaten as a snack.
Seed 2: Others are saved to be planted in the spring. We will grow into next year’s pumpkins.
Pumpkin 1: After we are picked and sold…
Farmer: …I then plow the field.
Vines: Old vines…
Pumpkins 1 & 2:…and unpicked pumpkins…
Vines & Pumpkins: …get mixed with the soil.
Seeds 1 & 2: The field is ready for planting us again next spring.
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