I've grown pumpkins and melons in the past with mixed results, especially the pumpkins. The problem, especially with pumpkins is, they usually rot before they appear to be ready to harvest. Melons not so bad. Any suggestions to keep this from happening? Today I cut a 3 tab shingle into 3 12 x 12 pieces and put one under each of the biggest pumpkins. Think that will help? Hurt? And I rotated the cantaloupes and water melons just to get them off the same spot.

I should also mention I mulch heavily with mulched up dead leaves when the plants are young.

How big of an area?
Vines that can spread usually do not have problem with bad fruit do to air circulation.
I only get bad fruit when I crowd them.
When I have it, I have put straw under the fruit.

Maybe that's my problem this year. I planted 15 hills of each (cantaloupe, water melon, and pumpkin). Hills are about 5 feet apart in a 3 x 5 pattern. I thinned to 3 plants each hill. Pumpkins do seem crowded. I thought about straw. I think I'll get a couple of bales.

Thanks

I wonder if you are over-watering?
I've had watermelons rot and/or split open after too much rain...
My experience is that watermelons do very well with drought, but poorly with rain in due season.

stone said: I wonder if you are over-watering?
I've had watermelons rot and/or split open after too much rain...
My experience is that watermelons do very well with drought, but poorly with rain in due season.

Interesting. That just seems illogical to me but I guess that's why they grow so well in the south. Maybe I overwatered my honeydew vines that died.

OK, I picked my first pumpkin today. I want to make puree for pies right away with it. Does it look ripe? I watched lots of utubes on how to tell if they are ripe. It had a very brown and dead curly que thing and a hard stem. Pressing my thumbnail into it just dents it, doesn't penetrate. When I cut the stem it was solid (not hollow). All those say it should be ripe. But does it look like it?

It appears ripe, Seeds appear mature. Note that pumpkins, like most winter squash, have more flavor after a couple weeks of curing.

I found that topic to be quite the controversy especially if eating/processing them right away. But I'm going to have more than I want to freeze up so I'll try curing the next one. I've read 2 weeks in a window sill and 2 weeks upside down out of the sun??

I've never put mine on a windowsill, nor upside down - I wipe them off with a very dilute bleach solution (like, a splash of bleach in a bucket of water), dry them, and set them on the shelves that I use for starting seedlings in the spring.

In my experience, cooking them soon after picking results in a very watery puree. Even after curing for a while my puree has been much more watery than the "canned pumpkin" from the store; I've been thinking about putting it in my dehydrator for a while to take some of the water out. (Of note, I usually use hubbard-type squash rather than actual pumpkins.)

My experience today was the opposite. I baked it at 400* for 50 minutes. The puree was very thick. So much so my blender had a problem doing it. The last time I did this was at least 10 years ago and best I remember the puree was watery like you said. I'll make a pie tomorrow to see how it is.

I forgot to weigh this pumpkin but I'm guessing 7 lbs. It made enough puree for 7 pies.

Interesting! Maybe I need to bake mine at a higher temperature (I think I've used 350°)

Well the verdicts in and it's thumbs down for eating without curing. Consistency was good. Not watery at all. It is OK but just doesn't have the full pumpkin flavor I get from canned pumpkin (puree not pie filling). I used the same recipe I always do.

Next pumpkin I pick I will cure before processing and see if there is a noticeable difference.

Maybe it just wasn't quite ripe yet? Hard for me to compare your growing season to mine; I usually harvest just before we have a hard frost (most often in October).

@farmerdill -- when do you plant and harvest winter squash/pumpkins?

Depends. I usually plant small varieties like acorns, delicatas, small butternuts in April. Large varieties, hubbards, butternut, large Halloween types about July 4. I have not grown Halloween types since my daughter left home but did grow them ( orange, white and blue) primarily for decoration before then. Benn tempted to grow Porcelain Doll but never got around to it.

I think that a good test would be to try a side by side test with pumpkin and butternut squash...
It's my understanding that squash is usually the better choice...
Although... Last year I cooked with a blue pumpkin... it was very good.

Actually most if not all commercial pumpkin pie fillings are C. moschata. Libby's uses a selection Dickerson. https://www.marysheirloomseeds...

farmerdill said: Actually most if not all commercial pumpkin pie fillings are C. moschata. Libby's uses a selection Dickerson. https://www.marysheirloomseeds...

Looking at the photo I wouldn't have guessed that to be C. moschata. I might give it a try next year (and hope that it stays more like 10 lbs here in the north and not 40... )

Ther are several varieties of C. moshata that are pumpkin shaped an named pumpkin for that reason. Most famous is Long Island Cheese. https://www.johnnyseeds.com/ve... Autumn Buckskin is a hybrid version of Dickinson. Others include Fairytale/Musque de Province, Tan Cheese.
Moschatas are noticeable as they are normally a shade of tan not orange

Looking back at my previous post I was wrong when I said I used the same recipe I always do. The recipe calls for heavy cream but I always use evaporated milk but that time I used half and half. Next time I'll try heavy cream.

Here is 8 I picked today and put on a wire shelf in my garden shed window. Is this a good way to cure them?

Regarding growing: small to medium varieties can be trained up a sturdy trellis system. If you want to, you can use old stockings to hold the growing pumpkins up and lessen the strain on the vine.

Cooking: I usually roast mine in the oven before doing anything with them; even if I'm just making soup. It'll evaporate some of the water inside the tissues and might help against the 'watered down' texture later on.