Organic gardening 2025

akroberts

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I'm hoping that my pumpkins ripen before it gets too cold. It's already getting cold at night so hopefully they will. I have a large pumpkin out there and it's still completely green.
 

digitS'

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One year, I cut a completely green pumpkin about the day before first frost and set it in the garage. I forget the exact date but it was about 3 weeks and by Halloween, it had changed to orange.

I checked Redding CA, although I don't think that is quite where you are, @akroberts. The Weather Service has the mean date for a first frost since 2000 as 20 November.

Steve
 

akroberts

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One year, I cut a completely green pumpkin about the day before first frost and set it in the garage. I forget the exact date but it was about 3 weeks and by Halloween, it had changed to orange.

I checked Redding CA, although I don't think that is quite where you are, @akroberts. The Weather Service has the mean date for a first frost since 2000 as 20 November.

Steve
I'm close enough to Redding to use the frost date for them. It's also good to know that they will ripen off the vine
 

flowerbug

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I'm close enough to Redding to use the frost date for them. It's also good to know that they will ripen off the vine

as long as they are fairly well developed inside they should be ok for continued curing. it's when they're green and soft that they usually don't improve off the vine. i think the stem is a good indicator of how far along they are, if the stem is pretty hard and mostly dry they're as done as they'll get. don't pick it up by the stem (you want that to stay on if possible) or break the stem off.
 
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