Hi, I have grown some pumkins this year and I was wondering when I should pull them. We are growning them primarily for decorations at halloween so the bigger they are the better. My questions are.. Should I let them continue to grow and pull them on the first nite frost is predicted? If I pull them now and keep them in a dry place will they keep until the end of october (or longer?).
Thanks!
Steve
The longer you leave them on the plant, the more certain you can be that they will stay in good condition long enough. Don't let them get a frozen spot, of course. I bring mine in when I believe there will be frost or I throw a cover over some of them just in case if I decide to wait and see.
Steve (the other one)
They won't grow much larger once they turn orange.
I picked them when it was dry out for a fairly long period of time (48 hours) and when they turn solid orange with very little green remaining. Some of them last until March and are very flavorful as long as they're kept in cool, dry conditions. Mine usually turn orange around mid-late August but that's because I start with seedlings which were started indoors around mid-April. These are the "triple-treat" variety, only about 10 inches wide but there's a lot of them (over a dozen for 150 sq feet). A few of them rotted this year but that's to be expected with 20 inches of rain in the past 3 months.
Dan nw NJ
Gee. We've scarcely had 48 hours without rain since the beginning of May! What a year!
We're in north-central PA, and I don't know how much rain we've had in the past 3 months, but it's a LOT. And spring was just terrible, we had one stretch of more than SIX WEEKS without a sunny day.
It's pouring at the moment (remnants of Tropical Storm Henri, I believe), and is expected to rain tomorrow and Thursday, then Friday Hurricane Isabel will be here (unless it changes course). I hope it changes course, I expect there will be fairly major flooding here (and other areas) if it doesn't.
Pat
I am also growing pumpkins for halloween I live in Utah near Salt Lake and only one of my pumpkins is showing any signs of turning orange. Any Advice? As a side note I have hundreds of green tomatoes but very few red tomatoes any sugestions there?
Thank you!
Neil
Leave them on the vine until you are forced to pull them (due to frost/freeze). Ideally, they will be fully colored by then with hard rinds and extremely hard stems.
Pumpkins that are partly orange may color up if you are forced to pick them before they are fully ripe. They'll still be suitable for carving. Pumpkins and squash picked before they are fully ripe won't be as sweet or flavorful as they should be.
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