How to store a pumpkin - the best ways to preserve harvested crops

Beginners of summer residents and seasoned truck farmers will be interested in information on how to store a pumpkin so that the vegetable retains its original appearance for a long time and rewards its valuable and nutritious properties until the very spring. Provide proper conditions can be in private home ownership, and in the conditions of a city apartment.

How to store a pumpkin at home?

Proper storage of pumpkin for winter at home involves creating ideal indoor temperature conditions and meeting the requirements that will guarantee the perfect result.

1. The important point is the correct harvesting . It is not allowed to get fruits for freezing, but at the same time it is preferable to fully ripen the vegetable, which greatly improves the taste of the pulp.
2. Be sure to save the collection of tails, which should ideally be dry, which is a sign of ripeness pumpkin.
3. The collected fruits are dried a little in the sun, the field of which is taken to a cool, darkened and dry place.
4. The ideal temperature of pumpkin storage is from +5 to +10 degrees.
5. A suitable place will be a dry cellar or a cold cellar, but, in the absence of such, you can provide optimal conditions in the apartment.

How to keep a pumpkin for the winter in an apartment?

If there is no cellar or cellar, you can ensure the storage of the pumpkin in the apartment. Knowing some secrets, it will be possible to save for a long time the fresh taste of the vegetable, all its valuable properties and vitamins in its original form.

1. The best way to preserve the fruits is to place them on a glassed balcony or loggia. To do this, each pumpkin needs to be wrapped in a cloth and placed on the floor or shelves at some distance from each other. In severe frosts, the vegetable is thoroughly wrapped with something warm, keeping it from freezing.
2. In the absence of a balcony, you can put a pumpkin in a cool dark pantry. Even at a temperature of +15 degrees, the fruits are well preserved, if they are protected from access to light.
3. If there are no conditions for the preservation of fresh vegetables, you can dry the pulp in a dryer or oven , and then put it in a dry and dark place for storage.

How to store a whole pumpkin in the apartment?

Knowledge of how to store a whole pumpkin, will help to save the vegetable in an apartment as long as possible.

1. Proper storage of the pumpkin in the winter in the apartment can be provided by wrapping each fruit with paper and placing it on the floor near the coldest wall.
2. Do not put pumpkin near radiators or in direct sunlight.
3. Pumpkin can not be wrapped, but only covered with a dense cloth, placing the fruit at a distance of about 10 cm from each other.
4. You can not put the fruits directly on the floor: you need to pile a sheet of plywood, boards, a pallet or at least a paper.
5. It is important to maintain a constant temperature and humidity in the room, to regularly ventilate the room.

How to keep a pumpkin cut?

The next section will help you figure out how to store the pumpkin after it has been cut. The task at the same time is complicated and the period of preservation of such a vegetable is significantly reduced. The integrity of the protective peel is violated, and with prolonged storage the pulp begins to quickly mold, rot or fade, losing moisture.

1. The cut pumpkin before storage is rid of the seeds with the accompanying fibrous flesh.
2. Extend the storage of the cut pumpkin will help the food film, which you need to wrap the slice and pumpkin as a whole.
3. No less, or even more effective way of preserving parts of the vegetable is wrapping halves or lobules with a foil cut.
4. Correctly prepared portions are placed on a shelf on a balcony or a loggia or placed in a refrigerator, which is the highest priority option for preservation.

How to keep the cut pumpkin in the fridge?

Further on how you can store a pumpkin in the refrigerator after the fruit was cut in half or into smaller portions-lobules.

1. Purify pumpkin halves from seeds with loose internal flesh.
2. Halves or slices wrapped with food film, tightly pressing it to the cut, then placed on the lower shelf or in the vegetable compartment. Packed in this manner, the slicing can be stored for up to two weeks.
3. If halves or slices of pumpkin wrapped in foil and periodically change the wrap, the vegetable will remain fresh and unharmed for a month.
4. To preserve the juiciness of the fruit and prevent its withering in devices with vented chambers, slices can be lubricated before wrapping with vegetable oil.

How to store a pumpkin in the freezer?

If there is no way to ensure the correct storage conditions for pumpkin in the winter fresh, and there is free space in the freezer, the vegetable can be frozen.

1. Pumpkin is frozen after preliminary full cleaning. To do this, not only scrub the seeds with fibers, but also cut off the outer hard skin.
2. The resulting pulp is cut into cubes, brusochki or plates, laid in a chamber on a shelf with one layer and left for 12 hours.
3. Further storage of pumpkin in the freezer is provided by pouring the frozen cut into packages or container. In this form, the product should be stored for at least a year.
4. If you want to freeze, you can pumpkin puree in portions or packets.

How to store a pumpkin in the cellar?

The most optimal and correct way to preserve the freshness and valuable properties of the vegetable is to store the pumpkin in the cellar. In the presence of such a repository, it will be possible to conserve valuable fruits as efficiently as possible for a long time.

1. Pumpkin is preferably stored on shelves, covered with paper or straw.
2. Have pumpkin tails up. Fruits should not touch each other and with the walls of the vault.
3. Before laying the harvest, the cellar is treated with lime, dried, and the ventilation system is cleaned.
4. The room is maintained at an optimum temperature of +5 to +10 degrees and humidity at 75%.
5. Choosing a place for styling a vegetable, take into account the temperature difference at the floor and ceiling of the storehouse.
6. In cold frosty weather, the fruits are warmed, covering them with something warm.

How to store an immature pumpkin?

Sometimes, weather conditions make harvesting ahead of time, which entails the need for correction of the microclimate, in which fruits should be kept. About how to store a pumpkin, so that it ripens and is not worse than usual in the following paragraphs.

1. Initially, they are convinced that the fruits are actually immature and require individual storage conditions. To do this, consider the stem, in unprimed specimens it is with a green and not completely dried. The immature muscatel pumpkin is judged by the color of the peel, which in places remains green.
2. In warm weather, an unripe pumpkin can be taken out for a while in the sun.
3. After the onset of cold weather, unlike mature specimens, unripe fruits are placed in a room with a constant temperature of 15-18 degrees. In cooler conditions, this pumpkin is kept for a shorter time and requires priority use.