extremely O/T pumpkins

[davidh]

my wife planted pumpkins this year and because of the deer and other critters attacking the last of the garden she picked the squash and pumpkins and brought them hom.

thinking she was going to open up a decent sized, nice orange one and cook up the thing for pumpkin pie, i split it open and the meat was lime green and smelled more like a green mellon. not ripe yet. . . . . at least thats my take on it.

i googled for information about "off the vine ripening" and anything else that might tell me about it and came up empty handed. we have a picnic table covered with smaller pumpkins and i am asking if anyone has had experence with off the vine ripening ? or does that only work with tomatoes ?

sad if i need to haul them out for the critters to eat.

[kendall]

Yes they will ripen, though it's often a guess as to how long it will take. If they are already orangish, it almost certain.

Side note, I planted pumpkins in a new spot this year, a few feet from the property line to see how they'd work out. All the pumpkin vines grew through the fence and into the neighbors yard. All I have on my side is vines, but there are some nice pumpkins in her yard.

Ken.

[Evan]

Ethylene gas will ripen pumpkins off the vine as well as most members of the squash family. This how many such fruits are ripened commercially. Most fruits are picked green because it lessens shipping damage and then ripened just before local distribution in an ethylene gas chamber.

You can ripen them by putting them in a garbage bag with half a dozen ripe apples since apples give off a lot of ethylene gas.

[lynnl]

The gas doesn't really ripen them, it just turns the color so they look ripe.
That's why store bought tomatos have no taste.

But before you throw in all the technical BS Evan, I'll concede there probably are some chemical changes caused by the gassing, in addition to color change, but it sure ain't the same as the natural ripening process.

[Evan]

It really does ripen them, it's a natural part of the ripening process but applied in an unnatural way. A lot of the reason for lack of flavour in store bought varieties of fruit, especially tomatoes is the actual varieties grown. The are genetically selected for durability and predictability, not flavour. That was one of the motivations for the development of the "Flavour Saver" tomato.

[boslab]

i was told bananas in a bag but who knows what comes outa them!

[Evan]

Bananas do the same as apples. Either will work.

[aostling]

As an aside, here's a photo of Joe Jutras' world's record pumpkin, weighing 1689 pounds. A one-ton pumpkin is likely to be grown sometime soon, judging by the progress in the competitions.

[HSS]

Actually, tomatoes lose their taste because all the shippers after arrival from the tomatoe farms, refrigerate the darn things. If you store tomatoes below 50 degrees they lose their flavor.

[HSS]

Evan, down here the tomatoes are cross bred for durability and shipabilty while trying to maintain the flavor and acidity. That is why some varities have such thick skin.