Green pumpkin!

[mikewglospur]

Any advice from wise experienced gardeners would be very welcome........
I’ve managed to grow a decent-sized pumpkin this year for the first time.
However, the problem is that it has not (yet???) changed colour.
It is obstinately remaining green, despite sitting in the sun every day (when there is any) and being tactfully supported where it hangs on the vine.

So is there anything I can do about this?
Or is my pumpkin doomed now never to glory in the regulation orange colour?
Is this problem likely to have been my own fault?
And is there any (edible) use to which a green pumpkin may be put?


I read somewhere that it was because of the cold weather this summer, but I don’t feel it’s been unusually chilly – even now the autumnal air is pretty normal, not exceptional – so I reckon it’s had a fair chance to take advantage of the summer and September rays.

As I said, any advice would be welcome. I guess it might be fairly urgent, since we’re half-way through October.

[veggiechicken]

Hi Mike and welcome.
A daft question to start you off - what "make" of pumpkin is it?

[Chippy Minton]

Sorry Mike, can't help, but looking forward to the wisdom of others as I have the same problem...

[veggiechicken]

What "make" is yours Chippy?
Not all pumpkins are orange

[VolesAteMyPeas]

Well, I put my smaller winter squash (uchiki Kuri and hooligan) that hadn't ripened on the window sill in our attic bedroom with ripe bananas. Apparently the ripe fruit emit ethane which helps other fruits to ripen (and speeds the demise of cut flowers). This has worked. They are ripe looking now after three weeks. The only drawback is that I was hoping to save some seed but they have already swelled and sprouted within the fruit. I believe storing at lower temperatures would prevent this but I have no idea if they would ripen at lower temperatures. Quandary.

[VolesAteMyPeas]

Ethene not ethane.

[Zelenina]

Hi Mike. Squash and pumpkins often don't change to their ripe colour until after they've been harvested and kept indoors to mature for a while. You can harvest it when the vine is dead, or when the stalk of the pumpkin has dried out, or when frost is predicted, whichever comes sooner.

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

It could be a genetic mutation. I grew Atlantic giant last year and it did not change colour.

In pumpkins, orange color is a dominant allele, and green color is a recessive allele. If the egg contains the orange allele and the sperm contains the green allele, the orange color will be expressed, because it has dominance over the recessive green allele. The only way to produce a green pumpkin is if both the egg and sperm contain the recessive green allele.

Pumpkin Genetics | GiantPumpkins.co.za

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

Thread from last yr: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1169667

[Chippy Minton]

What "make" is yours Chippy?
Not all pumpkins are orange

Hi VC, I think it's Jack O'Lantern, whatever it is definitively a standard orange pumpkin (or supposed to be, as currently it is resolutely green!). Probably went in too late, the kids are getting used to carving green pumpkins

[veggiechicken]

Green pumpkins are much spookier than orange ones Chippy