The swelling and ripening The pumpkin is a source of great pride for those who grow it in the garden: it is beautiful to see a fruit grow so much thanks to their care. In the garden, the pumpkin stands out and can be seen from afar.
In order to take full advantage of this vegetable, you must to know the good moment to collect it, learning to distinguish the appropriate degree of maturity of the cucurbit. Especially for those who are new to pumpkin growing, this is not trivial.
I have here some tips choose the right time to harvest, without detaching prematurely from the plant and without leaving the fruit too long in the field, at the risk of it being spoiled by cold and humidity.
Contents [Ocultar]
-
harvest period
-
Pre-harvest treatment
-
Understanding Correct Pumpkin Ripeness
-
Post-harvest storage
Contents
The collection period
Pumpkins are a typical fall vegetable and are harvested from late August to November. The pumpkin ( cucurbita maxima ) has a fairly long growth cycle and usually takes 4 or 5 months from harvest to vegetables ready to be picked. There are varieties that ripen earlier (early) and others that ripen more slowly (late), but most Italian garden pumpkins they are harvested between late August, September, October and early November.
Pre-harvest care
During its ripening, it is necessary to take care of the fruit which can be damaged by excess humidity or the onset of cold weather.
About humidity a good precaution is to place a wooden or plastic box under the fruit, taking care not to detach it from the plant. In this way, it is protected from water on the ground and from possible stagnation during heavy autumn rains. Straw mulching is also a good method to keep squash dry.
The cold on the other hand, it jeopardizes the pumpkins that remain in the field with the arrival of winter, therefore from October. In this case you can think of blankets, particularly useful for the night. You can use a small tunnel (for example the mini greenhouse) or a simple non-woven fabric. Care must be taken not to subject the fruit to frost which ruins both the vegetable and the plant. If the temperatures drop, harvesting the pumpkin is necessary so that the fruit is not damaged, otherwise we can let it ripen as much as possible.
When the pumpkin is not ripe, be careful not to accidentally fall . If for any reason it is moved, you have to be very careful: the fruit becomes very heavy and it is momentarily detached from its petiole. If it comes off, there is not much you can do: will not ripen once detached from the plant if it was almost ready it will be less good but still edible, otherwise it will unfortunately have to be composted or fed to an animal.
Finding the Right Pumpkin Ripeness
Learn to distinguishing the right time to harvest is important for three reasons.
- The first is the quality of the vegetables obtained : Ripening makes the squash soft and tasty. When a pumpkin is ripe, it exhibits its characteristic colored flesh, usually orange, and has a sweet and salty flavor, the consistency becoming sweet and honeyed when cooked. If, on the contrary, the fruit is removed too early, it will not ripen and the flesh will remain tough and stringy, tending to be bland.
- The second is conservation. : an immature pumpkin contains a lot of water and is not able to keep over time, whereas the longer the vegetable is kept in the sun, the longer it will keep by going to dry properly.
- The third reason is the seeds : when picking ripe pumpkin, the seeds form completely. They can be eaten as snacks, roasted and salted, or we can save them to plant next season.
For these reasons, it is good to learn to distinguish when to seize, feeling the appropriate degree of maturity . This is obviously compatible with the weather because, as already mentioned, if the cold is approaching, it is better to take a not so sweet pumpkin than to lose it due to a frost.
It’s not very easy understand from the outside maturation, fortunately there are two great tricks to understand if you can pick the pumpkin or if it is still immature, among those that come from peasant wisdom…
- Look at the petiole: the rule says that if the petiole is dry, the squash is probably ripe.
- feel the shell . To check the consistency of the husk, try cutting the outer husk with your fingernail, if it is hard and barely scratched it means we are ready to harvest, otherwise you can wait a bit longer.
special varieties
Pumpkin is a vegetable that exists in many different varieties there is hundreds of the types of cultivated pumpkins, thanks to interbreeding, an incalculable genetic variability is obtained. Each variety can have its own more or less early growing cycle and therefore vary the harvest period a little.
The advice in this article refers to classic orange-fleshed pumpkins , which are picked when fully ripe and eaten cooked. Some famous varieties among them are beretta piacentina, Chioggia sea squash and quintal squash. Hokkaido pumpkin it is characterized by a thinner skin, so much so that it can be eaten, which must be taken into account if the maturity is appreciated by the method of burning the outer rind.
There is also unripe harvested green pumpkin varieties , just like zucchini. In this case, of course, the indications found in this article are not valid: the fruit must be picked before it is ripe, when the skin is still green.
ornamental gourds On the contrary, they must be picked at full maturity, leaving them to dry as much as possible on the plant. The same thing happens with halloween pumpkin , which requires a hard shell to form the lantern. The loofah, a kind of gourd that forms a loofah, is also harvested ripe.
Conservation after harvest
after harvest pumpkin keeps for a long time especially if we were able to choose it very ripe and therefore without excess water in the pulp and with a nice dry skin.
To store it, we choose a shaded place not wet, fresh but absolutely no cold . In fact, you always have to be careful not to go down 8 degrees .
.
This way we can store the pumpkins throughout the year, until the next harvest. To learn more about this topic, you can read the article on the best way to store pumpkins, which contains some useful tips on this subject.
.