Quick pumpkin question

sarinka

My pumpkin vines have spurned the vegetable patch and prefer to sprawl like ladies of leisure on the lawn. The fruit are now growing as pictured on the not recently mown, weedy and now damp grass. Will they rot? Do I need to protect them somehow? Thanks.:)

sarinka

P.S. sorry for the grubby gardening finger nails.😁

amancalledgeorge

They should be fine but they will make a mess of the lawn for a bit I've got a couple like that on my grass path...so be it. The grass will recover. 

TheGreenMan

Hiya.  Grubby nails should be mandatory on this forum!

I grew some last year and we kept them off the ground to stop them rotting.  I used three plastic pot feet that I had lying around but anything that doesn't store water would work I guess  

BobTheGardener

The main issue at that size and smaller is slugs nibbling away underneath the section touching the ground, so some folk put a slate or clay tile underneath each fruit.  If there's no sign of damage underneath I think it'll be fine left as is now though.  However, it looks like the remains of the flower on the end hasn't fallen off yet and those can start to rot which can continue into the fruit, so I would remove that and wipe the area gently with a dry cloth is there's any slimy residue.

sarinka

Thank you very much, all! I will be removing the flowers and will see if I can find a tile to rest them on / see if slugs are out and about.

Love this forum. I mainly just lurk but am learning heaps.:)