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Hi all,

I was looking for advice on how to store pumpkins for Halloween.

This year we have managed to produce 3 decent size pumpkins of which one was starting to soften slightly on the end, so that became pumpkin soup. The other 2 are nicely orange and a decent size for my 2 little munchkins to scoop and sculpt come Halloween (one is 600g and the other around 900g).

To protect the pumpkins from our resident, pumpkin loving field mouse (he happily chomped a great big hole in a fourth fruit) and the abundance of slugs and snails, we've decided to harvest them now and are storing them in a wooden toy box, which keeps them dry and in the dark, but allows a good supply of air in for ventilation. The box is in a room with an ambient temp of around 19C.

Is this adequate to prevent them rotting and keeping them fresh enough to be able to use the innards once the scooping and carving has been done at Halloween? Sorry to sound dence, but this is the only the second year I've grown these and last years solitary pumpkin was only just ripe by halloween and so strorage wasn't an issue.

Also, after having had masses of male flowers and only a very few females at the start of the season, I now have females popping out all over the place and have a further 3 pumpkins growing. One is the size of a large orange and the other two are between a golf ball and a small lemon. Will these mature to become edible or is it too late in the season now?

Many thanks in advance for advice,
Regards
Reet
xx

You actually need them in a warm place to cure..naturally they would cure on the ground in sunny autumn..some luck. After they are cured(when a thumbnail stuck in barely penetrates ,then... store them in a cool dry place.

Rule is..cure in warm,store in cool.

As it nearly Halloween you will bew fine,,cured they will store till next year!!

XX Jeannine

Thanks Jeannine,

They can stay put for now then  :). Hopefully, next year I'll have enough to cure and store for the following year. Going to try and grow Butternut squash and one other, not sure which yet, as my kids love them Roasted and they make great soups.

Regards
Reet

like this, it works for us[attachment=1] ;)

hiya, reetnproper, welcome to the site  ;D
we've still got some half and half green/orange in the spare room..the ripe ones are in nets in the garage  :)