It looks like your pumpkins are ripe and ready to be picked, but should you wait? Surprisingly, leaving your veggies on their vines can improve their flavor and make them easier to store.
Grower Jerad Bryant will show you how long you can leave your pumpkins in the field to ripen.
You have been taking care of your pumpkin plants all summer by giving them soil to grow roots in, lots of water, and lots of sun. Their fruits will be ready to pick in the fall.
If you pick them too early, they will not taste good and will have hard meat. If you pick them too late, they will be rotting, mushy, and not good to eat.
There is no right time to harvest, but there are times that work best for your kitchen, garden, and schedule.
The pumpkin is ready, but you can not store it inside because you do not have enough space. Do not do it until you are ready. There are a lot of different situations that can tell you when to pick your squash.
Some of us gardeners have fields that do not ripen tomatoes very well. Whether it is bugs, bad weather, or diseases, an early harvest helps stop these problems before they hurt the quality of the food.
There is no one else who knows your yard better than you do. Only you can tell when your pumpkins are ready. These tricks and tips will help you make the call.
The Short Answer
Pumpkins that are ready to eat can stay on the trees until the first frost in the fall. It is possible to pick them earlier, but the taste is better if you wait longer.
You can pick them when their skins do not tear easily and they have reached their full color. For early crops, the curing process takes longer, which is what we will talk about next.
The Long Answer
When to pick your pumpkins when they are ready depends on your yard, the weather, and your growing goals.
Let the pumpkins stay on the vine as long as you can if you like sweet and salty pumpkin meat. If pests, diseases, or wet weather make it hard to gather, you might want to pick them earlier rather than later.
Ripe Ones Have Thick Skin
The scratch test is the best way to tell if your winter squash are ready. Press into the skin with your finger. It is too soft if your nail can poke through it. If you can not poke a hole in the hard skin, the fruit is ready to be picked.
The color of the skin is another sign that the fruit is fully ripe. No matter if your type ripens green, white, orange, or a mix of the three, you will want them to be the same color all over.
Some parts of them should be orange, but others should still be green. This means they need more time on the vine to grown.
First Frost Makes Flesh Sweeter
You can leave your fruit on the vine until the first light frost. T
he growing vine dies when it gets too cold, so your ripe fruit stays in the yard. Even though the plant dies, pumpkin flesh gets sweeter in cold weather, which makes it great for pies, cakes, and other sweets.
It is best to cure and store your crop after the first frost. If something freezes over and over, it may rot and become soft and gooey inside. If you keep a close eye on your yard, you will find your gourds when they are sweet, juicy, and tasty.
Why Harvest Early?
If you grow in a place where it gets wet and shady in the fall or where frost comes early, you should pick your orange gourds early. Pumpkins ripen on the bush if they are already changing color when you pick them, just like tomatoes do. If things are right, they will keep changing and get better.
If you want to gather early, cut the stems whenever their skin turns a mature color. Cut them back to their stems, leaving a few inches of the main body in place. The stems keep the inside from going bad and attracting fruit flies and other bugs.
Put your fruits that are not ready where it is between 27°C and 80°F for about 10 days, giving or taking a few days. It works well in a garden, porch, barn, or garage with good air flow.
When their skins turn the color of ripe meat and become hard to pierce with your fingernail, they are ready to be cured and stored for a long time.
Protect Ripening Pumpkins
Some things help them stay dry, rot-free, and pest-free while they ripen. Squash that is lying on the ground can get soil-borne diseases, maggots, and insects that dig tunnels. As the gourds ripen, put a layer of straw mulch between them and the dirt below them.
Animals that dig tunnels can not get out of the ground and into your fruits because of this protective dirt coating. Straw also makes it easy for water to drain away from the spot, which keeps the gourds dry even when it rains.
The water goes through the straw and then the dirt, where it soaks into the roots of plants. Straw dries out quickly above ground, so your veggies will stay dry even when it is cool outside in the fall.
Watch out for powdery mold and squash bugs more than anything else. These two pumpkin offenders happen a lot. Powdery mildew can be avoided by watering only at the soil level and not above it, especially at night.
Kill the yellow-brown egg groups that squash bugs leave on leaves to keep them away. At night, put a wooden board around the plant to trap them. In the morning, take the board off.
It has bugs on it. Pick them off and put them in a bucket of soapy water. Spread the dead bugs on the ground to add their nutrients back to the soil.
Cure Before Storing
You should let your pumpkins cure before putting them away for a long time, even if you picked them early or left them on the bush until the first frost. Most veggies go through a process called “curing” that makes their skins harder. This keeps them safe from rot and pests.
Some veggies, like garlic, onions, and winter squash, are cured before they are sold in stores. You can also cure vegetables that you grow yourself.
For at least 10 days, keep pumpkins that have been picked in a safe place with temperatures between 80°F and 85°F (27°C and 29°C). Goodbye! You can keep them for a few weeks to months after 10 days, when their cuts and bruises will be better.
If any fruits become soft, change color, or smell bad while they are healing, take them out right away so the smell does not spread to the healthy ones. Fruits and veggies can get diseases or rot even when they are grown in the best conditions.
If you can stop them from spreading, you will have plenty of ripe pumpkins from fall to spring.
Long Term Storage
If you keep them cool and dark, cured pumpkins can last for one to three months. You can store them in a pantry, a storage room, or a cellar below the ground.
Keep them between 50°F and 60°F (10°C and 16°C) and 50–70% humidity. For up to three months, they will stay sweet, fresh, and full of life.
If you do not have enough room in your home, you can also leave them out at room temperature on a table. They will only last up to four weeks, not three months. As with curing, take any rotten fruits out of storage to stop the disease from spreading.
Another great way to save your fruit to eat later is to can it. When you can pumpkin meat, use your favorite recipes. Up to a year after you can it, you can use the preserves in pies, ice creams, and stews.
Save Seeds For Next Year
When you grow pumpkins successfully, with few pests or diseases, lots of harvests, and easy drying, save the seeds to grow again next year. It is great to find a type of plant that does well in your yard, and if you save the seeds, you can be sure that the success will happen again.
If you grow more than two kinds of pumpkin, they might cross-pollinate and make a new combination that could be harmful the following year.
In this case, look for seeds of the type of plant you first grew. If you eat cross-pollinated squash that is poisonous, you could get sick. To keep seeds that are true to their type, start over and only grow one type.
To keep seeds fresh, wash and dry them, then put them in a jar that will not let air in and put it somewhere cool and dark. They can live for at least a year, and in the best situations, they can live for many years.
