The fall months typically mean a few things are inevitable: the pumpkin spice latte, cooler weather and pumpkins. After you’ve carved a beautiful face into the pumpkin or simply just decorated it, you’re going to want to show it off. Without taking the proper steps to keep your pumpkin from rotting, it can start to decay in as early as three days.
Don’t let your pumpkin pieces fall victim to becoming a mushy, sunken mess. Read through these tips and tricks to help you stretch the life of the pumpkin well throughout the season.
Bleach
The easiest and most cost-effective way to keep your pumpkin from molding for up to a week or longer is dipping the pumpkin into a beach solution. Bleach kills microorganisms that allow the pumpkin to rot and simultaneously dries the pumpkin out. The process for setting up the cleaning solution is simply as follows:
Once your pumpkin has been carved, rinse it with water to do away with any excess strings and pumpkin guts.
Take a large bucket and fill it with 3 gallons of water.
Stir in 3 tablespoons of bleach into the water.
Submerge the pumpkin into the solution. Hold the pumpkin down because it will naturally float, and cover as much surface area as possible. Allow the pumpkin to sit in the solution for up to 2 minutes.
Remove the pumpkin from the solution and allow it to air dry.
If you’re looking for more information head on over to Clorox’s website.
Silica Packets
An opened packet of silica gel pellets might seem like an unusual choice to protect your pumpkin from rotting, but it truly works. According to Mental Floss, tests were performed to check the validity of these pumpkin-saving tricks and found that the bleach solution and silica gel packets were the top two solutions that proved their worth in keeping a pumpkin from rotting too soon.
Silica gel is a desiccant, so it’s no surprise it works as well as it does. It will absorb moisture and keep the surrounding areas fairly dry if it’s humid. A dry pumpkin means little to no mold growth and less drooping.