earliest harvest of Uchiki Kuri pumpkins

[Karen]

Hey Charles and all,

Just want to share my earliest ever harvest of Uchiki Kuri and Solor pumpkins. These came from 6 plants (4 UK and 2 Solor) and there are still several more still ripening. The Solor pumpkin is supposed to be similar to UK but more prolific, which I believe is true as I was able to harvest 10 fruit so far from just 2 plants and several are still ripening.

These plants were sowed in mid April as well as early May and planted out in mid and late May. My only hope is that can keep long into the winter since these are the earliest I have ever had.

[charles]

Karen, they will store better if you leave them on the plant until the necks are shrivelled. In autumn this can be difficult but in summer as now, it helps ripening and the last bit of sweetness to enter fruits.
Keep them warm and dry until eating.
Perhaps in your climate, hotter than Britain, it may be worth growing Crown Prince and Butternut to use the whole season.

[Karen]

Hey Charles,

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely hold off harvesting the remaining UK pumpkins till autumn. I was just concerned that the field mice might have a feast off these pumpkins from under the ground as I had this problem 2 years back. And I solved it by putting tiles under the pumpkins, but I suspect too that some pumpkins didn’t come to fruition as some of them couldn’t root off some of the stems.

I have a few Crown Prince plants too and they are still growing and I reckon the fruits will hopefully last over winter.

It does seem to appear that our climate is a whole lot hotter and drier than where you are. I like growing UK as they don’t need to be skinned and peeled as opposed to most other pumpkin varieties.

[Author]

Posts