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Preserving Pumpkins
Pumpkin carving is seen as an art by many. In fact, many enthusiasts spend a lot of money on buying the pumpkin carving kit so that they can make a perfect Jack-O’-Lantern. It can take hours to carve some of the difficult patterns of Jack-O’-Lanterns on pumpkins. Since, so much hard work and effort has been put in to carve these pumpkins, it is natural that you would want to preserve them, so that they could last longer. Two major problems that cut short the longevity of carved pumpkins are: mold and drying or shriveling. Therefore, it is important to take measures to save your hard-worked pumpkins from rotting. Let us explore ideas to preserve carved pumpkins for Halloween.
How To Increase Life Span Of Jack-O-Lanterns
- Untreated carved pumpkins have a short life span and may last only for a day to a week. To preserve your carved pumpkin for longer periods of time, you need to slow down the dehydration process and make sure that mold does not grow on it. When pumpkins lose moisture, they shrivel up. Sometimes, they can be restored by soaking them in water overnight.
- Cover all the cut surfaces of the pumpkins with petroleum jelly, including the light coating on the entire inner surface of the pumpkin, for preserving them. Petroleum jelly locks the moisture inside the pumpkin. It can be applied with a finger on fine areas, but you may have to use a paper towel to coat the inside.
- Move the pumpkins to a dry and shaded area during the day to increase their life span and keep them in the refrigerator overnight to slow down their decomposition. This method is especially important when you are carving a number of pumpkins for Halloween and are preserving carved pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns for the main day.
- There are some preserver sprays available in the market, which are inexpensive and environment-friendly and also deter mold, rot and bugs from damaging our Jack O’ Lanterns. They can be easily sprayed on the inside and cut parts of the pumpkin, to keep them fresh for a long time.
- In case, the pumpkin spray is not available, you can use a home-made spray made of bleach and water. Make a bleach solution by adding 1 tsp bleach to a gallon of water. Soak the pumpkin in this solution for 8 hours. Thereafter, spray it with a mild bleach solution on a daily basis.
- You can also coat / cover the inside as well as the cut surfaces of a pumpkin with white glue. As the glue dries, it will seal the pumpkin, thus preventing dehydration.
