calabaz-hard skin and oranged up
diego bill
.. My question is, how do I know when the
Dear Gardeners,
This is the first year I've had enough water to seriously try growing
melons and pumpkins and so far they appear to be doing all right. Since
we only just got the well at the end of June it was late for planting but
this summer has been long and hot so there's a good chance of having some
harvest. The melons are a cantelope variety and the pumpkins are various
that I have saved seeds from when buying a piece of particularly lovely
(very orange) pumpkin (calabaza). My question is, how do I know when the
pumpkins are ready to harvest? Do I just wait until the plant dies back in
the fall and bring them in to store? The melons are for eating now, not
saving, but how does one know the right moment to pick them? Thank you for
any advice. Kath (gardening in southern Spain)
Time is the moving image of eternity
eric@interbook.net
The harvesting of melon and pumpkin can be a very tricky business.
The amount of time between when they come ripe and the time the bugs attack
them seems to be about 20 minutes!
Basically, I bring in melons when they 'thump' hollow - the same way
you would gauge one in the store. Pumpkins are a different story. I try to
wait until the skin is becoming orange and the squash has started to develop
the characteristic ridges and dimples in the skin. As soon as they begin to
turn, keep a close eye on the stem to make sure that borers don't get to it
before you do. I will also put a folded section of newspaper under each
pumpkin to help discourage the ground bugs from digging in from the bottoms.
If you wait for the vines to die back, you may lose a lot of your
crop. This year, in the Southeast US we had an unusually hot and dry
summer, and all of my pumpkins came ripe about a month early (I have them
all in as of this past weekend). I raise mostly the Atlantic Giant variety
and had a great crop (16 pumpkins from 6 seeds averaging > 60 lb.). I only
lost 1 to a borer in the stem this year and will have to cut it up this
week.
I also had an overly ambitious volunteer crop of 'humpkins' that
came up out of a compost pile left from last year. These were from seeds
produced two years ago when I planted blue hubbard squash and Big Mac
Pumpkins too close to each other. They evidently cross-pollinated and the
seeds produce 30-50 lb. squash that is the shape of a hubbard, but a
green-orange skin. The flavor and texture is closer to the hubbard, but the
size is enormous. I have a couple dozen of these that I've been putting up
in my spare time. Since they were volunteers, I totally neglected them (in
fact, had to pull several dozen plants out of the main garden) and they
still produced like crazy.
Anyway, the rule of thumb with pumpkin is 'there is no rule of
thumb'. You just need to be vigilant and leave them on the vine as long as
possible without the bugs getting them or having them begin to rot on the
bottom.
Hope that's helpful.
Walker Bennett
wbennett@caldwellspartin.com
wabennett@gw.total-web.net
w_bennett@msn.com
___________________________________________________________
Only in America...
do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put
useless junk in the garage...
___________________________________________________________
Dear Gardeners,
This is the first year I've had enough water to seriously try
growing
melons and pumpkins and so far they appear to be doing all right. Since
we only just got the well at the end of June it was late for planting but
this summer has been long and hot so there's a good chance of having some
harvest. The melons are a cantelope variety and the pumpkins are various
that I have saved seeds from when buying a piece of particularly lovely
(very orange) pumpkin (calabaza). My question is, how do I know when the
pumpkins are ready to harvest? Do I just wait until the plant dies back in
the fall and bring them in to store? The melons are for eating now, not
saving, but how does one know the right moment to pick them? Thank you for
any advice. Kath (gardening in southern Spain)
Time is the moving image of eternity
eric@interbook.net
> The harvesting of melon and pumpkin can be a very tricky business.
> The amount of time between when they come ripe and the time the bugs attack
> them seems to be about 20 minutes!
LOL!
And if I could add, the small round cantelopes I grow called Early Sweet are
ripe when they tug easily off the stem but the more football shaped
cantelope the aged uncle grows are ripe when (according to the AU) the stem
right at the melon turns brown and dry. Here in this year's hot and dry
zone 5, the Early Sweets are ripe now, the others will be ripe in about a
week give or take.
About half of my pumpkins -- which are all too small for jack o'lanterns
probably because of the drought -- are ripe now by the "fully orange and
thump" rule and the other half are still green.
--Tanya
who in attempting to look on the bright side figures there's only been one
Monday since April when she hasn't been able to hang the laundry outside
Prince Edward County, Ontario
zone 5ish
kath
Can't advise on the pumpkins - here in Ireland we just leave them as long
as possible and snatch them in ahead of the frost - but for canteloupes the
best test is do they smell ripe? When you get that lovely honey whiff you
just search around until you find where it is coming from
happy eating
kathryn
