PUmpkin question

[Matthew Reed]

Some of my pumpkins are turning orange already. Is this normal? When should I harvest them, and should I just leave them alone until frost kills the plants?

[Barb]

[Matthew Reed]

How big are they? How old are they? Mine produced tons of male flowers and got real big before finally producing female flowers.

[Barb]

they are big plants with big flowers all of them male

[FragileWarrior]

"Barb" wrote in news:_TaBg.79$f8.25@trndny09:

And you don't know why the ~*~*~*male*~*~*~ flowers aren't producing off- spring? What a perfect place for a birds and bees and pumpkin flower chat...

But, hey, I learned something here, too -- I didn't know there were two types of flowers on the vine. :)

[Pat Kiewicz]

Depends on the variety. Some turn orange before they are actually ripe. (This is a great trait for jack-o'lantern pumpkins, which just need to look good enough to carve.)

The pumpkins will store best if they are left on the plant to get fully ripe. The stems will be as hard as wood and the rinds will be too tough to pierce with a thumbnail. Generally, for best eating quality you want to let the pumpkins stay on the vine as long as possible. Cover the fruit with paper bags or old towels if light frost threatens and harvest when the vines die back or before a hard freeze.

[FragileWarrior]

[e-mail] (Pat Kiewicz) wrote in news:NfOdnT5MpZcqdUjZnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

My ripe (or at least ORANGE) pumpkins seem to be getting mushy stems right at the vine and then that's that. The first one that turned orange turned out to be completely hollow inside due to rot although the outside looked picture perfect. These are not large ones, either, although there are a few larger ones still on the vine and still okay, stem-wise.

Any idea why they are going mushy at the stem/vine connection?

[Matthew Reed]

I've noticed that small pumpkins will sometimes drop off of the vine. I'm guessing the vine can only support so many pumpkins, and any excess are dropped. I wonder if that applies to big ones also?

[Pat Kiewicz]

Could be a late flight of vine borer moths. The larvae will burrow into the stem and can enter the fruit. Doesn't happen often (where I live) but farther south there are two generations a year.