18 min
Tips for the Best Pumpkin The Sunshine Gardening Podcast
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- Home & Garden
There is no better symbol for the month of October than the pumpkin! While pumpkins are widely used throughout the fall season to decorate the home, many people associate them with Halloween. Nowadays, pumpkins have expanded from the traditional orange Jack o Lantern pumpkin into a wide variety of shapes and colors. To find out more about pumpkins, I called up my good friend and co-worker Metcalfe County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources Brandon Bell. While talking to him, I discovered tips for picking the best pumpkin and how to properly store them at home. What I didn’t expect to learn was the better and more efficient way for carving my Jack o’ lantern! To find out this secret to carving pumpkins this season, make sure to stay right here on the Sunshine Gardening Podcast!
Pumpkin Displays at the Cheekwood Gardens in Nashville, TN
There are a lot of different varieties of pumpkins that are available to the public to purchase. Tell us about some of those varieties and what trends you might have noticed with some of those varieties.
* Pink Pumpkin. The first pick pumpkin developed was called a 'Porcelain Doll'. Growers had to sign a contract to give some of their proceeds back to breast cancer awareness.
* Blue
* Black
* Large White Pumpkins
* Green
* Yellow
* Orange
* Red
Various Pumpkin Varieties
A lot of these pumpkin varieties that you can find in these colors are stackable pumpkins, especially the orange and burnt orange and red Cinderella pumpkins. Most retailers will sell you a stack of pumpkins.
Cinderella pumpkins were the original stacker pumpkin, and then later they started incorporating other colors.
Looking for texture? Warty pumpkins and peanut pumpkins offer some unique shapes on the outside of the pumpkin.
How should you select the best pumpkin? What things should we look for to buy a good pumpkin?
Stackables pumpkins- get pumpkins that match each other. the flatter they are they better, Cinderella on bottom
Jack o’ lantern is shape, and will sit up on its own. Hard texture as far as the rind. Make sure that it is hardened off. Firm, stout green stems. Avoid shriveled up and soft stem. Pick up the pumpkins by the bottom rather than from the stem. Look for an overall good shape and color.
Earlier in the season, the stems are still green. A good stem means a lot. A bad stem will cause decay to form earlier.
As far as helping these pumpkins last during the season, what things can we do to encourage a longer lasting pumpkin? OR are there things that we don’t want to do.
Wait as late as possible to carve the pumpkins. Keep them under cool, dry and shady spot. Keep them out of direct sun.
Clean the pumpkin with a 10 percent bleach solution to help them last longer.
What is the best way to carve a Jack o' lantern pumpkin?
There is no better symbol for the month of October than the pumpkin! While pumpkins are widely used throughout the fall season to decorate the home, many people associate them with Halloween. Nowadays, pumpkins have expanded from the traditional orange Jack o Lantern pumpkin into a wide variety of shapes and colors. To find out more about pumpkins, I called up my good friend and co-worker Metcalfe County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources Brandon Bell. While talking to him, I discovered tips for picking the best pumpkin and how to properly store them at home. What I didn’t expect to learn was the better and more efficient way for carving my Jack o’ lantern! To find out this secret to carving pumpkins this season, make sure to stay right here on the Sunshine Gardening Podcast!
Pumpkin Displays at the Cheekwood Gardens in Nashville, TN
There are a lot of different varieties of pumpkins that are available to the public to purchase. Tell us about some of those varieties and what trends you might have noticed with some of those varieties.
* Pink Pumpkin. The first pick pumpkin developed was called a 'Porcelain Doll'. Growers had to sign a contract to give some of their proceeds back to breast cancer awareness.
* Blue
* Black
* Large White Pumpkins
* Green
* Yellow
* Orange
* Red
Various Pumpkin Varieties
A lot of these pumpkin varieties that you can find in these colors are stackable pumpkins, especially the orange and burnt orange and red Cinderella pumpkins. Most retailers will sell you a stack of pumpkins.
Cinderella pumpkins were the original stacker pumpkin, and then later they started incorporating other colors.
Looking for texture? Warty pumpkins and peanut pumpkins offer some unique shapes on the outside of the pumpkin.
How should you select the best pumpkin? What things should we look for to buy a good pumpkin?
Stackables pumpkins- get pumpkins that match each other. the flatter they are they better, Cinderella on bottom
Jack o’ lantern is shape, and will sit up on its own. Hard texture as far as the rind. Make sure that it is hardened off. Firm, stout green stems. Avoid shriveled up and soft stem. Pick up the pumpkins by the bottom rather than from the stem. Look for an overall good shape and color.
Earlier in the season, the stems are still green. A good stem means a lot. A bad stem will cause decay to form earlier.
As far as helping these pumpkins last during the season, what things can we do to encourage a longer lasting pumpkin? OR are there things that we don’t want to do.
Wait as late as possible to carve the pumpkins. Keep them under cool, dry and shady spot. Keep them out of direct sun.
Clean the pumpkin with a 10 percent bleach solution to help them last longer.
What is the best way to carve a Jack o' lantern pumpkin?
18 min