When to harvest/cure Pumpkins for Halloween

[Jay-ell]

I've promised my sisters lot three pumpkins to carve for Halloween.

Never carved pumpkins (but my swede aren't up to scratch to make lanterns). Should I take them off the vine now to let them cure and harden or just leave them on to keep growing?

They're not getting the big ones of course - they're for the site pumpkins completion. They're just getting the little ones that are football sized. There's only one pumpkin per plant so cutting them off won't impact on the others.

[Small pumpkin]

I think leave them on the plant for as long as possible to ripen / cure. As long as there is no risk of frost. But if you want to cut them off, I've read you cut the stem 3 or 4 inches either side of the fruit put it somewhere warm ( kitchen work top ) for 5 to 7 days to finish curing then store it somewhere cool but frost free and they will keep for months. Never tried it myself. I don't usually get many so they don't get stored for very long.

[Jungle Jane]

The weather looks to be warm this weekend maybe leave a little longer while it's nice? I can't remember how long I had mine sitting in the dark shed waiting for them to fully ripen or storing or maybe they were curing? I can't remember why they were in there but cool & darks good.

[hamamelis]

Leave 'em on as long as you can is the general rule isn't it?

If they're for carving, they don't need to be prepped for long term storage anyway do they? Once bits get chopped out they ain't going to last long regardless.

[Snadger]

Put them in the freezer to harden Jason!

Joking apart, I intend lifting my pea, sorry pumpkin, hopefully just before the first frost!

[Jay-ell]

Thanks all.

I was just wondering if they needed to cure before carving to hold together.

Recon I could paint a swede orange and pass it off?

[cptncrackoff]

we've had ours out a week or so!

They're in the conservatory curing, just because they keep better!

..And I only took them because the plants entirely died back, in the past I've had the stalks start to rot back from the plant so I like to get them in the warm and dry when the plant is dead!

[Jay-ell]

we've had ours out a week or so!

They're in the conservatory curing, just because they keep better!

..And I only took them because the plants entirely died back, in the past I've had the stalks start to rot back from the plant so I like to get them in the warm and dry when the plant is dead!

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Those are not pumpkins.

They ARE space hoppers.