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Hi everybody,
Right, I have a problem. I have a galeuse d'esyines squash (kinda like a warty pumpkin) that is a very good size but was attacked by vine borers when it was growing and so its stem is rotting away. I have moved it indoors and keep cutting off the soft bits, and have wrapped the stem in polyroll, but I'm wondering - is there any way to a) stop the stem continuing to go mushy and b) something I can coat the stem with to draw out the moisture and thus keep the pumpkin itself from rotting before I can use it? Any advice helpful - otherwise it's going to be soup quickly!

Cut the whole stem away, quick. If you're lucky you may get ahead of the rot. Otherwise, make pumpkin soup.

Thanks Robert.  :D Going home to saw the rest off and then look up recipes...

wow, I have never heard of this problem before.  Very interesting!  Tis a battlefield out there!

Good news is it seems to have worked.  ;D The bit's now dry and I'm hoping it'll keep for awhile. Still, it's the first one to get made into soup, methinks.

My veg spags are rotting back into the fruit, but that is a storage problem... OH will insist in using the Tumble Dryer in the shed and not venting it properly!!!
;D