The life & times of Jack O. Lantern

Part of my gardening experiment this year was pumpkins.  I love Halloween & with that comes carving pumpkins.  I saved some seeds from the pumpkin I carved last year, determined to grow my own.  My micro pumpkin patch started off with a whopping three plants - two regular pumpkins and one Big Max.  You may recall Audrey III and how impressive she was looking at the beginning of the growing season.  As you may already know things have a tendency to change, and that's how it was with the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Let's take a peek at the pictures, shall we?

July 11: pumpkin #1 lookin' good!

July 11: pumpkin #2 growing nicely.

July 11: all's well in the pumpkin patch.

All of July the pumpkin patch was cruising right along in the growth department.  Had some new blooms, but I picked them off so the plant would send more nutrients to the existing pumpkins.  Towards the end of the month the vines were not so fantastic looking but I wasn't worried as long as my pumpkins remained healthy.  At some point, Audrey III managed to cough up a pumpkin & I was pretty excited.

July 27: Pumpkin #1 looks excellent

July 27: Audrey III finally growing a pumpkin!
Hey, better late than never.

July 27: Pumpkin #2 looks fantastic!

Let me tell you, by the end of August I was doing a jig every time I went in the back yard.  These things went from seedlings growing in my bath tub to actual pumpkins and it just blows my mind.  It was killing me not to carve them mid-summer.  Another month zipped by - I finally moved the vines to mow underneath them because it was driving me insane.  A few leaves fell victim to the mower (oops) but even though the vines looked scraggly the pumpkins did wonderfully.  Except for Audrey III, who decided to just rot away and die, so I tossed the whole plant.  Seemed late in the season to be trying for a giant pumpkin anyway. I would also like to mention that there is nothing to prevent critters from feasting on these plants aside from a few marigolds.  They did a fine job repelling pests!

August 24: #1, the largest, is on the left. 
#2 waits patiently in the background.

#1

#2

You may recall around the time I was taking those pictures (end of August) there was a storm brewing along the East Coast.  Scratch that, Irene beat the Bejesus out of the East coast.  She gave us days, nay, weeks of rain.  Constant rain.  The ground gave up at some point and water just sat in puddles on every surface imaginable.  The grass grew like mad during all of this, and there was no way I could mow...  we just had to wait it out.  We got a brief pause in the rains - right before Irene hit our part of the coast.  A short calm before the storm.  Bad news on the pumpkin front: my beautiful pumpkins I'd spent all summer admiring had been laying in water & were starting to rot.  #2 was a lost cause, but #1 only had a few spots.  No actual rot of the flesh, just minor discoloration, the threat of something bad.  That one I could save.  #1 got picked & placed on the back porch.  I waited as long as I could but at some point gnats started to feast on the back & there were some tiny craters in the back of my pumpkin.  It was then I decided to carve my pumpkin before it just turned to a pile of mush.

I carved it September 27 & it just got thrown out about a week ago.  Not because I was reluctant to toss it, but because it still  looked good.  Actually, if I had been diligent about spraying it I bet it would still be nice.  The trick to preserving the jack-o-lantern you've put so much time into is soak it in a bleach solution.  Visit this site to see the results of many different preservation techniques, and you will see that bleach is the best method.  Also, the most cost effective.  You only need 1 tsp. bleach per gallon of water.  I soaked my pumpkin over night - and have a spray bottle filled with some of the solution to keep it hydrated once it goes out side.  All you have to do is soak your pumpkin (preferably for 8 hrs but I have gone as low as 3 hrs) and spray it with the solution daily.  It won't wither because you're keeping it hydrated and the bleach keeps the funk out.  If you do allow the solution to pool in the bottom of the pumpkin it will get moldy, trust me!  So regularly dump the stuff out of the bottom or carve a hole in the bottom for drainage.  Alternatively, you could slice the entire bottom off then there's no need to cut out a lid!

..::Happy Halloween::..