will my pumpkins be ready?

[chrissie the chippy]

for Halloween?

They are still flowering and some have small pumpkins on, one is quite large and green (feeling rather proud they got this far )

Do you think they will be ready in time? Or will they be ready too soon? Can I leave them on until needed?

Also how many pumpkins do you get off one plant? I have 4 and flowers keep appearing!! There is well over 10 on one plant, is that normal?

[yoanbob]

yours sound like they are at the same stage as mine chrissy, dont know the answer tho, i'm just hoping.
some people just allow each plant to flower once and take the rest off as soon as they apear to make sure all the energy goes into making a big pumpkin, ive left about two or three on each of mine.

[Waffler]

Can't answer your question, but just wanted to offer a piece of advice. Please watch your pumpkins closely to make sure they don't get eaten or start rotting, so hopefully if either of these occur you can take evasive action. I only ended up with 1 pumpkin last year; I left it on the plant, but it seemed to stop growing and wasn't turning orange either. In the end I cut it and hoped it would orange up indoors, much the same as you would with green toms, but alas, all that happened was that it rotted . Very sad I was too!

[greenlung]

Hi - I grew 9 big pumpkins on 4 plants last year. Stored a couple until March with no problems - but another one rotted as it got bruised.

Mine seem a bit late this year - still green and ranging in size from tennis ball to volleyball - but I still reckon they'll be ready for carving at the end of October.

If you're going to eat them, it's best to let them mature a bit - at least a month or so.

Watch out for the slugs and maybe rest them on a bit of cardboard or straw as they develop. Good luck : )

[chrissie the chippy]

Thank you for the advice. I'm not too fussed about the colour, the wierder the better They'll look just as good carved green, yellow or orange

I have noticed a lot of what looks like white powdery spots on the leaves though, will it effect the pumkins? Should I put anything on them?