Harvesting on time: when to harvest a pumpkin and how to determine its ripeness in the garden

Harvesting pumpkin is the most enjoyable process for a gardener. And if the fruits are born, then doubly so. Pumpkin is loved for its rich content of vitamins and microelements, but due to the mistakes of vegetable growers, its benefits are lost. If you leave the pumpkin in the garden too long, it may freeze. Its taste and shelf life largely depend on the harvest time of the vegetable.

How do you know when a pumpkin is ripe? By what varietal and individual characteristics can maturity be determined? When to harvest according to the lunar calendar? You will find detailed answers to these questions in our article.

When to Harvest a Pumpkin

A mid-season pumpkin variety ripens in about 4 months. Harvest in mid-September. A prerequisite is to have time to cut all the fruits before the onset of frost. Otherwise, the pumpkin will quickly freeze and spoil.

The harvest is harvested on a dry, fine day. If fruit harvesting occurs during a rainy period, the fruits are dried and left for several days in a dry, dark place.

What determines the timing of ripening?

There are early-ripening, mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties. Each of them differs in the speed and conditions of maturation.

Climate plays a key role in plant fruiting:

• in the southern regions, it is customary to harvest on open ground when all the leaves have dried up;
• in the northern regions, the fruits do not have time to ripen; they are picked ahead of time and sent to ripen indoors.

How to understand that a pumpkin is ripe and it’s time to harvest it

How to determine the ripeness of a vegetable in the garden? For beginning gardeners, it is especially important to know the signs that fruits are ready for consumption or storage. Be guided by external manifestations. Do not break the integrity of the fruit or try to pierce or cut it, otherwise it will quickly spoil.

Important! You can remove vegetables only with a knife, carefully cutting it off from the stalk. Do not pick the pumpkin or leave ragged ends on the tail - this will cause pain in the fruit and plant.

Individual signs of fruit ripening

You can check the ripeness of a pumpkin without removing it from the garden. Depending on the variety, each plant signals the ripeness of the fruit differently. Just take a closer look at the bark of the vegetable:

• bush varieties are distinguished by clear light yellow stripes;
• a large-fruited pumpkin has a dark, dense network;
• the bark of muscat varieties becomes brown with light round spots.

External manifestations

External criteria for pumpkin maturity:

1. The stalk is dried out, hard, tough. If it is still green, you should let it ripen.
2. The leaves and vines on the plant are yellowed and dried out (at least partially).
3. Pumpkin has a rich color depending on its variety - yellow, gray-green or dark orange. There are some varieties to which this rule does not apply. There are plants whose fruits remain white or gray even when fully ripe.
4. The fruit's crust is hard and dense. There should be no dents left when pressing on it.
5. The shell of ripe fruits has a pronounced pattern. The exception is green-fruited varieties.
6. Dense pulp structure.
7. Hard seed skin, with the exception of gymnosperms.

Reference. Some gardeners recommend focusing on the sound when tapping.If it is ringing, the pumpkin is ripe.

With this simple knowledge, you can easily find out when to harvest your garden. Wherever it is, in the Kuban, in Siberia, in the Leningrad, Moscow regions or in the Urals - these criteria are universal.

Harvest only ripe fruits. If you still need to harvest ahead of time, leave them to ripen in a warm, dry place.

For the convenience of gardeners, manufacturers write harvest dates on the back of the seed bag. Sometimes the description indicates the color of the ripe fruit.

Important! The period indicated by the manufacturers will be accurate only if the summer was warm and sunny.

Harvest calendar dates

The calendar dates for pumpkin harvesting depend on the local climate and plant variety:

• in Siberia, the harvest begins at the end of August;
• in central Russia and Ukraine - in mid-September;
• in the Krasnodar Territory - until the beginning of October.

Pumpkin should be picked on a clear, dry day. It is desirable if it coincides with the collection date according to the lunar calendar.

Cleaning according to the lunar calendar

Experienced gardeners carry out all work on the site according to the lunar calendar. It turns out that even harvesting has its favorable days - during this period, all the juices of the plant move to the fruit, saturating it and imparting taste.

Every year the lunar calendar changes. The most favorable dates for collecting pumpkins will be the days when the Moon is in Gemini in its waning phase, Scorpio in its waxing phase, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius in any phase.

Pumpkin varieties and ripening times

There are many varieties of pumpkin, but there are universal harvest dates:

• Early ripening — Mozoleevskaya 49, Golosemyannaya, Almond 35, Biryuchekutskaya 27, Vesnushka, etc.They ripen within 3.5 months, and are harvested in mid-late August. The fruits are quite tender, have a thin crust, so they can be stored for no more than a month. Early ripening varieties are often grown in cold regions: if frostbitten, they are not stored for a long time.
• Mid-season — Smile, Winter sweet, Chit, Volga gray, hundred pound, Medical, Russian etc. Maturing period - 4 months. Pumpkins are harvested in mid-September before the first frosts.
• Late ripening (hard-barked) - Nutmeg, Pearl, Vita, Testi Delipe, Interception, Vitamin and Butternut Ponca. They can be stored for up to six months due to their thick crust. The training camps take place in mid-late September. The ripening period is about 200 days, so the pumpkin matures during storage.

Storing the harvested crop

Before leaving the harvested crop for storage, it is advisable to sort the pumpkins by volume into large, medium and small.. Experienced summer residents advise leaving fruits only of medium and large sizes, without damage.

How do you know if a pumpkin will rot during storage? If certain conditions are met, it will remain fresh all winter. At a temperature of 25-28°C and a humidity of 80-85%, unripe pumpkins will ripen, the skin will harden, and scratches that can cause rot will heal. If you do see damage, try to heal it by treating it with 3% potassium permanganate.

After a week, it is advisable to move the pumpkin to a cool, dry place, preferably with good ventilation. Favorable storage conditions for the remaining time are temperature +4...+9°C and humidity - 70%.

Owners of private houses can use cellars to store crops; residents of megacities have adapted to storing vegetables on the balcony or in the basement.

In addition, there are a few more recommendations that will help you preserve your crops for the winter:

• arrange the pumpkins so that air circulates between them;
• It is most convenient to store pumpkins on racks, placing straw under them;
• by looking after the storage twice a week, you can immediately notice rotting fruits and protect the rest;
• Do not store pumpkin near fruit.

Reference. Gardeners note better preservation in such varieties as Almondnaya 35, Mozoleevskaya 49, Premiera and Gribovskaya Zimnyaya.

Advice from experienced gardeners

Growing pumpkins has its own tricks:

1. The last time to water the vegetable is 3 weeks before harvest.
2. In rare cases, you can check the ripeness of the pumpkin by pressing on it with your fingernail. If the peel is pressed through and is green inside, then it is not ripe. But such a test is fraught with rotting of the entire fruit.
3. If you don't have enough space to store vegetables, you can cut the pumpkin into pieces and freeze it. This preparation is used for preparing all dishes except pumpkin juice. Drying and drying vegetables is also popular.
4. Pumpkin should not be kept until spring. In this case, it begins to stale and become “cotton,” losing its taste and juiciness.
5. If the season has been cold and rainy, the harvest time has come, and the pumpkin is not yet ripe, you can speed up this process. 3 weeks before the first frost, all flowers from the pumpkin should be removed and the tops of young shoots should be pinched. To speed up the ripening of large fruits, all small pumpkins are removed from the bush.

Conclusion

Pumpkin is an unpretentious crop; it grows in most dachas and gardens in Russia. It doesn't take much effort to grow it. But you need to know at least the basics of caring for vegetables. Determining fetal maturity is not a difficult task.It is enough to know the varietal characteristics of pumpkin and take a closer look at the plant and the vegetable itself.

It is important to harvest before frost sets in, otherwise the fruits will freeze. Follow our useful recommendations and get good harvests every year!