[cm1980]

My son has been harassing me to carve our pumpkins today. I'm just not sure if they will last. We just moved to the East coast( Newfoundland Canada) It rains here all the time. I was wondering if the rain will preserve it better or make it rot faster ? Let me know what anyone thinks...

[Tkaraoke]

Pumpkins are so weird because sometimes you can have one (depending on the pattern) last weeks where others just die and rot so quickly. The best advice I think would be to carve it and keep it in the fridge or in a dry place. I kept a pumpkin alive for a week by setting it in the garage (cool and dry) and dunking it in water for 30 minutes then drying it off. I did it faithfull for most of those days but by the time Halloween hit, he was still presentable. However, once the candle heat hit him that was all she wrote!

[GUS]

A semi dry spot will obviously help, as will rehydrating them in a bucket of bleachy water to slow rot! plenty of material on it if you have a scout around.

[CorpseBride]

I would say they should be just fine. Moisture is good to keep your pumpkin from shriveling, but I would suggest mixing up a spray bottle of 3/4 water and 1/4 bleach and giving them a daily mist.

[matspud]

I have found temperature is more important than water. If it is wet and warm the pumpkins will rot quickly. If it is wet and cold ( but NOT freezing) they are fine left outside. If you are worried about them getting too wet just put bin bags over them overnight but remove then during the day if it is sunny and the temp. under the bag will rise.

If it is freezing- get them into a garage or shed nothing goes mushy quicker than a frozen pumpkin that has thawed,

[cm1980]

thanks for the responses.& suggestions..the 2 I carved last sunday are still doing well