[chickenlady]

Hello there, I had to pick my 3 pumpkins yesterday because all the leaves are dying back and have a white powdery mould on them, first question: do you think thet are ripe or will they ripen more?
secondly: what is the best way to store them because we grew them for halloween which is still 2 months away!!! they are not just for lanterns I make soup from them too so they need to be edible!

[judas25]

I have the same problem - I now have 5 large pumpkins on my plot which looks like it need to be picked soon and want to keep them for Halloween. The leaves not gone powdery yet.

You could make the soup now and freeze them till Halloween?

[John Wilkinson]

Wow!  :shock:  They look very good and very ripe as well. The best way to store them would be somewhere cool, dark and dry. I store mine in the garage and they seem to last well into the new year. You could make the soup now and freeze it but the pumpkins will last until halloween if they are stored right.

My pumpkins are forming OK at he moment although I have lost one or two to slugs.  :cry:  I am impressed that yours have ripened so early especially with such little sun this summer.

[chickenlady]

thanks for that! I will pop them in the garage today

[muntjac]

make sure the garage doesnt get really cold .wrap em in newspaper if it does  

[mor]

Store pumpkins for one to two weeks in warm temperatures, after that you can store them in a warm and dry environment for about two to six months. if you want to store them for long . you should then can it, freeze or dry the pumpkin when flesh.

[gobs]

Not so warm and so dry, 12-15 C should be about OK for most of them, rather cooler than warmer.

As JW says, Chicken, they are ripe enough to store well, put them somehow airy, like on a slatted or wire shelf.