Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

I was just wondering how long your pumpkins generally last in your various climates... and what you do to combat mold?

... and how long have you gotten a pumpkin to last? How'd you do it?

I think I had one that lasted over a month before I finally let it die (had to carve it the first week of October and still had it on the 31st!)-- but I was single, living alone, and had lots of room in the refrigerator. I did a combo of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) on the edges, then I'd drape a moist paper towel over the carved face, plastic wrap (saran wrap) the whole thing... and pop it in the refrigerator, where it was more-or-less frozen. I'd bring it out in the evenings and keep it lit for an hour or so. Then, when it started looking wilted, I'd drop it in a bathtub full of water for a couple hours... and repeat the whole spiel.

That sounds like a lot of work

The climate in Dallas is pretty unforgiving to carved pumpkins. When I was still carving the real ones, I think the longest I had it was possibly 4 days. But I didn't do anything to protect it. It seems like I heard somewhere that keeping it cool and locking in the moisture and giving it a once over with Lysol helps fight mold.

Yeah, there are sites on line that will give tips for helping them last, but I have never done that. I don't carve my pumpkins until the 30th or 31rst, and then they don't last long. Four days is probably it.

I've found that if I carve the pumpkin the day before it dries out a lot. It seems to last about a week after carved before it gets moldy, although most of the time it's cooked up right afterwards.

Do you live in a dry climate? Mine don't dry out too badly if I carve one day before, but they get moldy in 3-4 days.

Here in Houston, ours lasted about 2 days before it was all dried out and nasty, but I found the bugs move in before that.