When to pick pumpkins and squash

[snewman]

I have lots of pumpkins, plenty of which are fully orange now. When can I pick them? Is it important to wait for cool weather? I live in Wisconsin and we're still having warm days but cooler nights. Mine are pie pumpkins, and I want them at their sweetest. Same for the butternuts and acorns.

 

[obsessed]

They can be picked when they are not pierced by your fingernail. You want the outside shell to be think and that will help them store longer. If you pick them and their skin is soft they won't store well.

 

[journey11]

I'm in zone 5, but I've already picked my butternuts, most of them anyway, using the fingernail test. Other things to look for is die-back in the vines. Their stem will be dry and hard, starting to turn brown. I try not to disconnect the stem from the butternut, it leaves a raw spot, so take clippers and cut a couple inches of stem with it.

I've never grown pumpkins, but in most of the fields I've seen they seem to let them lie a long time, the vines pretty much dead. The gourds I raise store better like that too. I leave those 'til frost. (Of course the pumkins are going to get picked for halloween, and usually by then we haven't had our first real frost here)

 

[snewman]

Thanks to both of you!

 

[bills]

The commercial pumpkin growers in my area were just on the news the other night, saying that this summers hot dry spell has accelerated the ripening of their crops by several weeks. They were warning that there may not be many available for kids Holloween pumpkin patch picking events in October.