Immature Pumpkins

[Lucho]

I'm a newbie  :) and seem to be having beginners' luck with my pumpkins. I've been told by a fellow plot holder that I need to thin the many immature fruits that have set to leave just a few to reach maturity. Not wanting to waste them, I was wondering if anyone had used immature pumpkin 'thinnings', which are about the size of a lemon, as a cooked vegatable similar to courgettes, or whether this is not feasible/ advisable for unripe fruit? I've never grown them before so I'm still learning...on a daily basis it seems!

[Lucho]

[Mrs Ava]

hmmmm........thinking.....

Firstly, welcome, and secondly, well done on the pumpkins!  I have never removed baby fruits from the plants this early, unless I have wanted them for cooking!  I would take off any immature fruits around late August time so the remaining fruits can get as big/ripe as possible before I need them in the autumn.  To be honest, I am so disorganised, I would have to be really advanced with all of my jobs to remember to do that come late August!  ;D  If you really want to remove any, then I would use them the same as a courgette, after all, they are only 'soft squashes'.

[Lucho]

Thanks for the reply! It's nice to know there's a ready supply of advice and information out there from more experienced growers. I'm not really one for messing around with things - much more of a 'bung it in the ground and see what happens' person - so I think I'll just leave nature to take its course and see what happens come the autumn. I could end up with lots of small pumpkins, or the plant could shed a few naturally to leave me with fewer but bigger ones. More likely now that I've boasted about my relative success so far, the foxes will come and dig them up (they've been trying!) and the slugs will take care of the rest... :) I'll keep you posted...