Questions about pumpkins...

[femmocrat]

I have beautiful pumpkins this year! Not many, but the two largest are already a lovely orange color.

When should I pick them? It's only Aug. Will they keep for awhile? I don't plan to eat them, just want them for autumn decorating.

I only planted them "for fun". I'm amazed they are so nice.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. If they're fully ripe, you can pick them now.

They will keep for months if you have a place to store them that's cool and out of direct sunlight. Some of my pumpkins from last summer were still good in March. They do deteriorate rapidly once there is any puncture too the skin.

Pumpkins can hang on the vine until after the first light frost (low temp no lower than the high 20s) but should be removed before a heavy frost.

If your area will still have a lot of warmth in the next month or so it may be a good idea to pick them now because you'll risk sun scald which will bleach the stems.

I have three varieties in my yard this year, with one that just isn't producing viable fruit. That was from saved seed from a friend and I suspect that it's a hybrid.

The other two are producing quite well: rouge vif d'Etampes (the pumpkin that looks like Cinderella's coach) and a Kakai variety that has green mottling when ripe. Kakais also have nearly hulless seeds.

[Mind_your_head]

2. Thanks for asking this question.....

I've got ONE fully ripe pumpkin (about the size of a basketball, only a bit oblong)....and I was wondering the same thing. I really should pick it, but it's waaaay to early for 'harvest/halloween' uses.

I also planted some gourds in an unused patch of ground on the northside of my house, 'just for fun'. They flowered only about 3 weeks ago....I'm not gonna have anything by October (or ever)....not enough sun!

My little gourd experiment "drove home" to me the power of the sun! AMAZING, and mostly truly unappreciated, by people who don't try and 'grow things', me thinks.

I know that *I* learned something.

Peace,
M_Y_H