Green Pumpkins will they ripen?

[RevlonEyes]

We are due for a killing frost tonight. I have several pumpkins that are still green. DH and I talked about covering the plant with a tarp to avoid killing it. I really don't know that much about pumpkins. Will they still ripen if the plant were to die. Or would those pumpkins be gone. Some are nice size just green. Would appreciate any advice given.

[Marcia in MT]

What you do with the pumpkins will depend a lot on how heavy the frost is going to be. If it's a killing frost or even a freeze, it would be best to take the pumpkins inside and let the vines go. They're very susceptible to cold and a tarp won't help at all in this situation. If it's a lighter frost, the tarp may work, but prop it up away from the foliage, as any that touches it will die (plastic conducts cold very well; paper and cloth, less so).

I've successfully ripened green pumpkins by keeping them in a warm, airy place. In this case, it was a south facing back hall with south and west windows. The pumpkins sat up on a shelf in a single row and we didn't lose any of them -- they all turned orange and stayed nice and hard.

You might look for varieties with the precocious color gene: they color very early and have to be tested for ripeness by the hardness of their rind. Can't remember any names right now, but they'll be identified in the catalogs.

[Pony]

My in-laws (bless their hearts!) picked some "unusual squash" I had planted up the hill on our property. (It's uphill from their homestead, and they get up there a lot more often than we.)

Anyhoo, MIL is describing this funny looking green squash, how they'd cooked it and it tasted sort of bland, but they harvested a whole bunch and they were bringing it back down home to us.

Well, they picked my pumpkins about a month early.

One of them did have a very tiny blush of orange, and that one has fully ripened out on the patio. The rest are still as green as the Kermit the Frog, however, and I don't see much hope for them.

Oh, well. I really can't complain. We've not been going up because the crazy Mean Neighbor makes me physically and psychically ill, so the folks have been harvesting my Northern Garden for me. Which is really very sweet of them.

Pony!