[monstermash]

Ha! Ryan the pumpkin pimp!
Ive discovered another one has a small rotting hole on the bottom so ive gone all victorian surgeon on its ass and cut the rot out. Ive been left with hole about 2" wide and 1/2" deep. I then cleaned it with mould and mildew remover - which is basically bleach - and ive sprayed it with plasti-kote. It seems to be holding up but only time will tell. Im still sad.
I swear to you when i cut into the kin it groaned at me. I actually pulled out the knife in surprise.

[Ajax]

I have 15 am losing one so far for sure probably a couple. I just kind of grabbed them and didn't look for the soft spots but i didn't pay much for them. i usually lose a few and just buy extra. I find the crop this year to be very bad.

[SuperSonic]

my kins are still rock solid and i bought them at the begining of the month

[Joey]

I lost one of the two I bought last weekend. It was kind of a shock, since it seemed fine the last time I checked. I personally blame the universe turning against me, as I discovered it right after two of my violin strings broke. It's a curse.

[matspud]

I think the farmer thought i had a bit of a fetish for that sort of thing.

Don't worry, he's used to it with me



Another thing to try is to sit them on cardboard. keeps the bottoms dry in case you have damp coming up through the concrete floor.

[Crystal]

Im in Ca so Im pretty lucky we have had pumpkins, uncut, sit on the porch well in to the new year.. I think I had one go to Feb. once. My mom likes to have at least ONE uncut pumpkin for Thanksgiving on the porch.

I hate when my kids wont leave them alone and drop them causing a soft spot.

[Lithium_joe]

I've had two start to rot at the top around the stem. One because my neice broke the stem off by trying to pick it up by the stem and it broke off ---- 3 days later the whole top of the pumpkin was going soft.

The other one I noticed a small hole near the top that wasn't there before and the top of that one was soft too ---- thinking maybe a squirrel may have tried to get to it.

I had exactly the problem - the stem came off when I picked the thing up at the supermarket. I didn't think anything of it. Tescos get 0 points for presentation, they're all just dumped in bins, so it takes so time a tape measure and a lot of elbow grease to extract the big ones for the designs. Also pumpkins are round so they roll making this a lot harder than it sounds.

Anyway the stem came off, I thought, because It'd been wedged underneath somethign when I pulled it out.

A day later, a damp spot, two days later a bigger damp spot that collapsed under my touch, scooped out most of the interior and the soggy tissue had a hole about 3" wide and down to the pumpkin interior. Quickly treated with bleach and covered with clingfilm.

But it was dead. Next day - there was mor mould than pumpkin so that one got tossed.



Good news is, the other all seem to be holding up - that 'un was rotten from the start.

I asked sweetly the produce manager at Tescos if I could relieve him of some of his cardboard boxes - and he gave me three.

They are all now in the boxes, on workmate-tables in a shed (which incidentally has a concrete floor) and away from all the doors and walls. We have spiders. I've no idea if spiders are antithetical to pumpkins but I ain't taking the chance. Also I've covered them all in black bin liners.


3 designs stenciled so far, 3 more today with any luck.

[matspud]

Also I've covered them all in black bin liners.

Hope they are just laid loosely over the top. Mould loves damp enclosed spaces.

[Lithium_joe]

Yup.

Should I just leave them uncovered in that case?

[matspud]

As long as it is just lying on the top that should be fine. Just keep checking. The weather here has been a bit warm this year in my opinion. Good for getting them to turn orange but bad for storage and mould.

I usually leave mine uncovered in the garage until it gets really cold then cover them with an old towel

[monstermash]

I cover mine with a blanket at night and take it off during the day. They seem happy enough. I gave each of mine a cuddle today hoping that if they feel loved they wont die on me
I am down to nine but ive had to operate on two of them. Hoping to get a few more next weekend if there is any good uns left.
Its funny you should mention spiders Lithium_joe, ive noticed that there are tons of them this year, massive ones at that! Whats that all about?

[Dadja]

I cover mine with a blanket at night and take it off during the day. They seem happy enough. I gave each of mine a cuddle today hoping that if they feel loved they wont die on me

See, now that's you problem, these creatures do not respond to 'nice'. You have to put fear in their hearts! Every seed in their slimy inside has to be filled with terror! You have to TELL them not to die. Not ask 'em... Just like kids, you know

[intrimazz]

or you can turn the really rotted ones into an [url]ehttp://www.extremepumpkins.com/verymoldy.html[/url] like that

but seriously thanks all for the bleach tip - i reused a small mist bottle and put a bleach water combo and sprayed the inside - will let you know how it turns out

[matspud]

Lost one really big one, another 2 look ready to go and 4 others have very soft lids. At least thats them all gutted......really sore scraping wrist though

[monstermash]

Sorry to hear about your loss matspud. I hope your others stay put untill carving time. 3 of mine have had to be prematurely carved due to rotting/ soft lids.
I got 5 more today from cairnie and one white one for jack skelington. That makes 13 for the big day. 4 days to go before they meet their doom.