How to Harvest and Store Winter Squash and Pumpkins

If you have grown squash or pumpkins in your garden, the last thing you want is that this product is wasted.

Avoiding waste means thinking carefully at the time and how you need to harvest your harvest, and also how you should prepare these fruits for storage, and how to store it for subsequent use.

When harvesting the squash and pumpkins

Visual clues generally indicate to you whether winter squash or winter pumpkins are ready to harvest. Often we can use the color and shine to determine if the variety we cultivate reaches maturity. Mature fruits can vary in color depending on the variety, but they are generally shiny and rich in shade.

We can also look at the rod above the fruit, which has started to turn hard and where when the fruit is ready to harvest.

In addition, we can use our other clues to determine if they are ready to harvest. For example, we can use a nail to see how difficult the skin is. The skin of ripe fruits must usually work but not perforation when he is in a hurry with a nail. When we press the fruit with our hand, they should seem hollow.

You can also keep track when you have sown and plan your harvest. The typical harvest time can vary depending on the type and variety and can vary with the weather during a given year, of course. But knowing the typical harvest time for the type you cultivate can usually help you understand difficult time when ripe fruit can be expected.

How to collect squash and pumpkins

To harvest the squash and mature pumpkins, you need a gardening knife or a pair of garden shears to cut the hard rod. The tool you use should be clean and clean to avoid making a shredded cut that can introduce rot or cause disease to make fruit unfit for storage.

It is preferable to leave stems a few inches long on each squash or pumpkin to reduce the chances that the fruits pour out quickly when placed in storage.

When harvesting fruit, look at them carefully for imperfections and problems. Whoever violated skins or other problems should be used immediately, while those who are intact can be prepared and kept in longer -term storage.

Heal the winter squash and pumpkins

Before the winter squash and pumpkins can be stored for winter, they must be cured. This process simply involves placing them in a lively, warm and dry location to allow the skin to harden and dry.

Hardening is important because it allows fruits to be kept for a while, often for several months. This process hardens not only the skin, but also allows excess water to leave, concentrate natural sugars and lead to a softer flavor, as well as, once again, increase the duration for which they can be stored.

In warmer and drier climates, squash and pumpkins can be healed outside or on a sunny porch, perhaps. But in cooler and weetly wet places, hardening is better undertaken inside or in a covered growth area such as a greenhouse or a polytunnel.

Storage of winter squash and pumpkins

How much time you can store winter squash or pumpkins will depend on the variety or specific varieties that you have chosen to grow. A squash can be stored much longer than others. However, many can be stored inside in a cool and dry location for about three months, often longer than that.

Although the interior temperatures that are higher can be correct, temperatures for the storage of winter squash and pumpkins should ideally be maintained between 50 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit and not more than 59 degrees Fahrenheit. A low humidity environment is the best because higher humidity can cause faster deterioration.

If you are lucky to have a pantry, it could be a good place to keep your squash or pumpkin storage during the winter months. You can then make sure you use the fruits if necessary and leave none of your hard work to get lost.