How many can I leave on ?

[binley100]

I have a Jack 'o Lantern pumpkin planted on my old compost heap. It now has four baby pumpkins growing . Can I leave them all on or do I have to limit how much fruit it sets. ?

[shirlthegirl43]

I think it depends how big you want them to get binley. I usually leave mine alone until they show signs of reaching bigger than grapefruit size - by then something has usually killed some for me

[Pumpkin Becki]

Do you want them for eating or carving Bins? If eating, then I like lots of smaller sized ones for roasting whole, but if you want them to get big enough to carve then you'd do best to leave just two fruit per plant.

[LolaLou]

Along the same lines as Binley's question......have an Uchki Kuri plant that has sprung into life and so far I have 4 lovely sized fruits on them (probably about the size of an average sized supermarket cantaloupe melon). Last year I grew just butternuts and left them on the plant til the plant died back and then cured the fruits for a bit longer and stored them but the fruits (as this year) didn't start appearing until about now. SO, with the UK fruits, do I just leave them on until Sept/Oct even though they actually look ready now, or should I take the biggest ones off now and cure them and start storing them already (well, store those that don't get eaten that is!)??

[Alison]

Unless I want to eat one that week, I leave all mine on for as long as possible and only usually take them off when the first frost is predicted.

[binley100]

Do you want them for eating or carving Bins? If eating, then I like lots of smaller sized ones for roasting whole, but if you want them to get big enough to carve then you'd do best to leave just two fruit per plant.

Eating of course.......