How to store pumpkin crops without risking spoiling a healthy product?

The harvest was a success, delighting you with more than a dozen selected pumpkins, but for some reason the joy of understanding your gardening skills quickly gave way to a sense of perplexity. How to store a pumpkin so that it could be enjoyed not only in early autumn, but also in winter, and possibly even until the next harvest. You are lucky: pumpkin is not the most fastidious vegetable, which means it will forgive you some shortcomings in storage. And yet there are tips that are required to be followed if you want to extend the life of your crop.

How to collect and prepare the pumpkin for storage?

Even before you start looking for a place suitable for a “wintering” pumpkin, it is important to make sure that you know how to properly prepare it for storage. And it’s best to think about it during the planting period: it depends on the variety how much it will be possible to keep it suitable for food, especially if you know that some storage conditions, such as temperature conditions or humidity indicators, will be violated. So, late-ripening varieties, or, as they are also called, hard-bred ones, will be best stored: having harvested in September, if you follow all the recommendations, you can save it for up to six months!
Also, pumpkin storage will be affected by how carefully you harvest. Despite the apparent simplicity of the process and the strength of the fruits themselves, it is rather unsuccessful to cut, scratch or throw the fruit to reduce storage time from a few months to a couple of weeks.

What should be taken into account when harvesting in order to successfully store pumpkin throughout the winter?

• Try not to damage the stem and do not cut it too short: the optimal length of the remaining cuttings should be about 10 centimeters.
• Protect the fruit from mechanical damage that will inevitably cause decay. Even a not very deep scratch that violates the integrity of the peel will certainly affect the shelf life, let alone chopped fruits, the preservation of which without treatment is generally not possible.
• It will also be useful to dry the pumpkins in the sun for a week. Remember the pumpkin crashes at the end of summer literally at every village house? You need to do something similar. Only, of course, it is advisable not to dump the entire collection with a slide: if space permits, arrange the fruits so that the sun evenly dries each pumpkin.

Tip

If a small scratch does appear on the pumpkin, some gardeners glue the crack with a bactericidal plaster, which helps delay decay. But such fruits are best used first of all, since the shelf life at home is still significantly reduced.

As you can see, the stage of preparation for storage is no less important than the choice of place, and can help preserve the fruits for several months longer.

Storage of pumpkins in a private house

If you live in the private sector, then for sure there is a suitable place on your land to store pumpkin: if you do not have a separate cellar, then there is certainly a basement, if there is no suitable basement, then there is certainly an attic, well, if the attic is not suitable for you, you can always store any utility room, such as a barn or garage.

It is important to observe only 4 conditions in order to successfully store the pumpkin in the winter.

1. The temperature should not be higher than +15, but not lower than +3 degrees, so if you are going to spread the pumpkin in an unheated barn, do not forget to cover it with hay or rags.
2. The room should not be too wet: the maximum permissible humidity is 80%.
3. Another condition in order to properly store the pumpkin is to protect the fruit from direct sunlight, so make sure that they are covered and the windows are curtained in the store.
4. Well, the last recommendation is the possibility of airing the room.

But it’s important not only which place you choose, but also how you will spread the crop.

• You can’t place the fruit directly on the ground, so if you intend to use the cellar without coating, be sure to take care of the substrate or storage boxes.
• It is undesirable for the pumpkins to be in contact with each other, so if the lack of space does not allow the fruits to be placed close to each other, then each of them should be wrapped in newspapers, rags or hay.
• Also, do not put the pumpkin upside down: place it so that the stalk looks up.

Pumpkin storage in the apartment

If you are going to store a pumpkin in an apartment, then cold storage is unlikely to suit you: it is not often at home you can find a corner where the temperature will not exceed +15. But it turns out that the crop can be stored at room temperature. The experience of many citizens suggests that the fruits are calmly stored until spring in the pantry or in drawers under the bed.

Some send supplies to the balcony, where the conditions are a bit more like a street barn or an unheated attic, providing insulation and protection from sunlight. The main thing is to constantly monitor the condition of the pumpkin, in time using specimens that begin to deteriorate and rot.

How to store cut pumpkin?

If you notice a rotten area on the crust, you should not send the whole pumpkin to the bin. It is enough to cut the affected area, and use the clean pulp for cooking. But what if you cannot eat the whole fruit at a time? A refrigerator is ready to help you. You can store the sliced ​​pumpkin in the freezer for up to 10 months, so this is a very convenient way to preserve damaged fruits for a long time. In the refrigerator, the pumpkin started lasts only 10-12 days, after which it begins to rot.

Tip

To increase the shelf life of sliced ​​pumpkins at home up to 30 days, foil will help, in which each piece should be wrapped before being put in the refrigerator.

Numerous recipes will also help to use the crop and protect it from the bin. In which they don’t do anything with a pumpkin: they twist, dry, turn into candied fruits, mashed potatoes or juice. But with our storage tips, you can spoil yourself with your favorite recipes with fresh pumpkin even in winter!