How to store a pumpkin: tips on preserving the harvest in a private house and in an apartment

The harvest was a success, thanking you for more than a dozen selective pumpkins, but for some reason the joy of realizing your horticultural skills was quickly replaced by a feeling of perplexity. How to store a pumpkin so that it can be enjoyed not only in the early autumn, but also in winter, and perhaps even before the next harvest. You are lucky: the pumpkin is not the most whimsical vegetable, and therefore, will forgive you some of the shortcomings in storage. And yet there are tips that are mandatory for compliance if you want to extend the life of your crop.

How to collect and prepare a pumpkin for storage?

Even before you start looking for a place suitable for "wintering" a pumpkin, it's important to make sure, then you know how to prepare it properly for storage. And it is best to think about this during the planting period: it depends on the variety, on how much it will be possible to keep it suitable for food, especially if you know that some storage conditions, for example, temperature regime or humidity, will be violated. So, late-ripening varieties will be best preserved, or, as they are also called, sturdy: after harvesting the harvest in September, if you follow all the recommendations, you will be able to keep it for up to six months!
Also, the storage of a pumpkin will be affected by how carefully you harvest. Despite the apparent simplicity of the process and the strength of the fruit itself, it is unsuccessful to cut, scratch or throw fruit to shorten the storage time from several months to a couple of weeks.

What do you need to consider when harvesting to successfully store a pumpkin throughout the winter?

• Try not to damage the peduncle and do not cut it too short: the optimal length of the remaining cut should be about 10 centimeters.
• Protect the fruit from mechanical damage, which will inevitably provoke decay. Even a not very deep scratch that violated the integrity of the crust will necessarily affect the shelf life, let alone talking about chopped fruits, the preservation of which without processing is not at all possible.
• It will also be useful to dry the pumpkin in the sun for a week. Remember the pumpkin collapse in late summer, literally every village house? You need to do about the same. Only, of course, it is advisable not to dump the whole collection with a slide: if space permits, arrange the fruits so that the sun evenly dries each pumpkin.

advice If a small scratch appears on the pumpkin, some gardeners seal the cracks with a bactericidal plaster, which can delay the decay. But such fruits are best used in the first place, since the period of their storage at home is still significantly reduced.

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

Pumpkin storage in a private house

If you live in a private sector, then for sure on the territory of your land there is a suitable place to store a pumpkin: if you do not have a separate cellar, then for sure there is a basement, if there is no suitable cellar, then for surethere is an attic, but if the attic does not suit you, you can always deposit any storage room, for example a shed or a garage.

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

1. The temperature should be no higher than +15, but not lower than +3 degrees, so if you are going to decompose the pumpkin in an unheated barn, do not forget to close it with hay or rags.
2. The room should not be too wet: the maximum permissible humidity is 80%.
3. Another condition for properly storing a pumpkin is to protect the fruit from direct sunlight, so make sure that they are covered and the windows are curtained in the storage.
4. Well, the last recommendation is the possibility of airing the room.

That's just important, not only what place you choose, but also how you decompose the crop.

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

Pumpkin storage in apartment conditions

If you are going to store a pumpkin in an apartment, then cold storage is unlikely to suit you: infrequently at home you can find a corner where the temperature will not be above +15.But, it turns out, the crop can be stored at room temperature. The experience of many citizens says that the fruits are safely 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 warmth and protection from sunlight. The main thing is to constantly monitor the state of the pumpkin, using in time the specimens that begin to deteriorate and rot.

How to store a cut pumpkin?

If you notice a rotten patch on the crust, do not send the entire pumpkin into the trash can. It is enough to cut out the affected area, and use clean flesh for cooking. But what if you do not get the whole fruit at a time? A refrigerator is ready to help you. Store the cut pumpkin in the freezer can be up to 10 months, so this is a very convenient way to permanently keep damaged fruit. In the refrigerator the same pumpkin will last only 10-12 days, after which it will start to rot.

Advice

To increase the shelf life of the cut pumpkin at home, up to 30 days, a foil will help, in which each piece should be wrapped before being placed in the refrigerator.

Use the harvest and protect it from the trash can also help numerous recipes in which they do not do with pumpkin: they spin, dry, turn into candied fruit, puree or juice. But with our storage tips, you can indulge yourself with your favorite recipes with a fresh pumpkin even in winter!