Volunteer Pumpkins

[David Taylor]

When I started the garden at the beginning of the year, I put down onion and garlic in three beds. Volunteer squash broke out, and since I wasn't too happy with the ground cover I had, I let the squash go, in hopes it would shade the ground. Well, they turned out to be Pumpkin, Crook-Neck Squash, and something a buddy of mine insists is a form of pumpkin, although it looks to me like it might be a cross of pumpkin and something else. Long story, but I have pumpkin month's ahead of the stuff I've actually planted. The question is; How long do pumpkin last once their vine has dried out and you've pulled it out of the garden? I've never had this problem before.

[jal_ut]

Here in dry Utah, pumpkins will last until frost just sitting out in the yard as a decoration. If taken indoors so they don't freeze, and kept dry, they will last until Christmas. Things may be different if you have high humidity. Of course, that is for pumpkins that mature later in the year. I don't know how well they will do if you still have hot weather. If you can put them in a shed so they are in the shade, and put them on something so they are off the ground, they may do well.

[TheWaterbug]

How long will mature pumpkins last if left on the vine? I'm getting female flowers on my jack-o-lantern pumpkins right now, and these were supposed to be ready for a "pick-and-paint" party just before Hallowe'en.

Looks like I'm going to be way early. Can I just leave them on the vines? Or should I pick them when ripe and then set them back out in the patch on the day of the party? I have 30 plants in the ground right now, so I don't want to move them unless I have to

[David Taylor]

It's going to be more humid here in East County San Diego (Any further south and this would be in Spanish), and the hot season hasn't even begun yet.