How long and how should you dry a pumpkin that will be used for decoration? How to properly dry pumpkin at home

Only two types of this plant are suitable for making various crafts. They are well known to gardeners and gardeners. These are called lagenaria and cucurbita. The peel of lagenaria is quite hard, which attracts the attention of masters of decorative and applied arts. Freshly picked Lagenaria is usually green, but then turns into a beautiful brown or yellow-brown color. Cucurbita has a soft skin. Outwardly, it is almost no different from the pumpkin from which salads or pancakes are made. Cucurbita differs from other pumpkins in its bizarre and sometimes even exquisite shapes.

Cucurbita can be green, yellow or golden. True, after drying it most often becomes faded.

It all starts in the garden

It is very important to collect pumpkins of both types correctly. We can say that making a flower pot, bottle or lantern begins at . Wait until the stems of your pumpkins are dry. As soon as you notice this, do not waste time - the crop must be harvested before the onset of cold weather. Frost is harmful to the peel, it becomes fragile. Do not cut the pumpkin “at the root”; be sure to leave a piece of the stalk measuring 4-5 cm. Inspect what you have collected. Only absolutely healthy fruits, without the slightest sign of rot, are suitable for drying.

Do not leave rotten pumpkins, otherwise you may lose your entire harvest. If healthy parts of the fruit cannot be used for food, it is better to discard the pumpkin.

It won't be today

Pumpkins take quite a long time to dry. This takes several months, so you will receive ready-made material for crafts no earlier than by spring. Cucurbita dries much faster than lagenaria, about twice as fast. Wash the pumpkins thoroughly with warm soapy water (it is better to use regular baby soap, without any fragrances), wipe with a soft cloth and let dry. Wipe the peel with a swab dipped in vodka or alcohol. Prepare the room - it should be well ventilated, but at the same time reliably protect what is in it from direct sunlight. A dry barn or loggia on the north side is suitable. Please note that the premises will be occupied for approximately six months. Arrange the pumpkins so that they are not touching each other. After about a week and a half, check the process. The pumpkins will change color, but there should be no rot. If spots appear, remove the pumpkin. Inspect the fruits a couple of times a week, remove rotten ones, turn over those that remain. After five or six months, when you turn it over, you will hear the seeds inside rattling when shaken. This means the pumpkins are ready and can be made into something fun.

Pumpkins. For thousands of years, pumpkins have been grown and used by many peoples as tools and household utensils. Nowadays, pumpkins are mostly used as decorations, fancy birdhouses or containers.

Ornamental pumpkins are close relatives of pumpkins, squashes and other Cucurbitaceous vegetables such as cucumbers and melons. And they are all easy to care for.

There are two main types of pumpkins grown for decorative purposes:

Cucurbita or Soft Crust Pumpkins - Colorful orange, gold and green pumpkins that look like table pumpkins but come in unusual, fun shapes. Cucurbita is commonly used as a wonderful fall decoration. They are beautiful as is and can also be used to carve a lantern, flower pot or saucer. They can also be dried and stored, but their vibrant colors will begin to fade after a few months.
L agenariya (Lagenaria) or hard-shell pumpkin - These larger, utilitarian pumpkins are used like familiar birdhouses, bottles and dippers. The hard rind is green on the vine and changes color to tan and brown over time as it dries. An interesting fact is that Lagenaria flowers bloom at night, unlike the usual yellow bloom of other pumpkins that we see during the daytime.

Collection of decorative pumpkins

Regardless of the type of pumpkin, the pumpkin is harvested when its stalks dry out and turn brown.
Cut the pumpkins together with a few centimeters of the stem.
Harvest all your pumpkins before hard frost sets in. Unripe pumpkins will not be able to survive for a long time, but frost will damage the soft shell of the pumpkins completely, and even a light frost can change the color of the lagenaria and affect its ability to dry out.
Discard damaged or spoiled pumpkins. They will immediately begin to rot in the storage area.

Hardening of decorative pumpkins

Decorative pumpkins take time to harden or dry. And there are no shortcut methods like microwave drying. The outer shell of the pumpkin should dry completely, and then you will need a few more months for the flesh to dry and harden. Lagenaria will require twice as much drying time as Cucurbita.

The appearance of mold

First, wash the surface of the pumpkins with soapy water and let them dry. You can wipe them down with alcohol to make sure the surface is completely dry.
Place them in a well-ventilated area where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight for about 1 week. The shell will begin to harden and change color. After a week, the surface of the pumpkin will be well dried.
Move them to a well-ventilated, dark place for at least 6 months. Make sure they are in one layer and not touching each other. Allow air to penetrate under the pumpkins by placing them on a shield or surface with air holes. You may find it easier to hang larger pumpkins to dry.
Check the pumpkins daily or every other day and discard any that have begun to rot, shrivel or become mushy. If mold appears (see photo), check to see if it can be removed with a dry cloth or a cloth soaked in bleach. If the pumpkin is firm to the touch, you'll be fine. Drying pumpkins is still not an easy process.
Rotate the fruit every couple of weeks to ensure even drying and prevent rotting.
When the pumpkins are light and firm and you can hear the seeds rattling inside when you shake them, they are ready. Now you can carve, paint, wax, shellac and decorate them however you like. Hard-rind pumpkins may be rough to the touch or flaky and can be smoothed or polished with fine compressed steel wool or fine sandpaper. And they will serve you indefinitely.

Peeling

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Pumpkins. For thousands of years, pumpkins have been grown and used by many peoples as tools and household utensils. Nowadays, pumpkins are mostly used as decorations, fancy birdhouses or containers.

Ornamental pumpkins are close relatives of pumpkins, squashes and other Cucurbitaceous vegetables such as cucumbers and melons. And they are all easy to care for.

There are two main types of pumpkins grown for decorative purposes:

Cucurbita or Soft Crust Pumpkins - Colorful orange, gold and green pumpkins that look like table pumpkins but come in unusual, fun shapes. Cucurbita is commonly used as a wonderful fall decoration. They are beautiful as is and can also be used to carve a lantern, flower pot or saucer. They can also be dried and stored, but their vibrant colors will begin to fade after a few months.
L agenariya (Lagenaria) or hard-shell pumpkin - These larger, utilitarian pumpkins are used like familiar birdhouses, bottles and dippers. The hard rind is green on the vine and changes color to tan and brown over time as it dries. An interesting fact is that Lagenaria flowers bloom at night, unlike the usual yellow bloom of other pumpkins that we see during the daytime.

Collection of decorative pumpkins

Regardless of the type of pumpkin, the pumpkin is harvested when its stalks dry out and turn brown.
Cut the pumpkins together with a few centimeters of the stem.
Harvest all your pumpkins before hard frost sets in. Unripe pumpkins will not be able to survive for a long time, but frost will damage the soft shell of the pumpkins completely, and even a light frost can change the color of the lagenaria and affect its ability to dry out.
Discard damaged or spoiled pumpkins. They will immediately begin to rot in the storage area.

Hardening of decorative pumpkins

Peeling

Growing decorative pumpkins can become a mania. Fortunately, there are many different types and even if you no longer have space to store them, decorative pumpkins are always a welcome gift.

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December 1st, 2013 , 07:41 pm

Author - marina5822014. This is a quote from this post

Here's how to dry a pumpkin for crafts.
Pumpkin dishes

Cherie Long

Cultivation of gourds (pot or bottle gourd) has been practiced for a long time: young pumpkins are eaten, and mature ones are dried, processed and made into light and durable vessels for liquids, other kitchen utensils, bird houses and feeders, Christmas tree decorations - and this is far from a complete list of necessary and useful things that you can make with your own hands from pumpkins grown in your garden.

There are several varieties of hard-bark pumpkins, and many gardeners are probably familiar with the bright, small fruits of decorative pumpkins, but we want to introduce you to the gourd or lagenaria, the fruits of which, when dried, have an unusually durable brown rind.

How to grow gourd

The common gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) is a vigorous annual plant of the gourd family, a vine with a climbing or creeping stem up to 15 meters long, so if you have little space on your site, we advise you to direct the vines along the path or driveway, or even better, to let them fly on a fence, trellis or tree trunk. This is especially important for the correct formation of the fruits of the Dipper variety, which means “dipper”. In order for the “handle” to grow long and even, the fruits must hang freely. The fruits of the gourd ripen for quite a long time, so it is preferable to grow it in the southern regions, where the summers are long and hot. Simply plant the seeds 1 inch deep in the soil in the spring, just after the last frost. However, if certain rules are followed, gourd can be successfully grown in the north. So, we offer ten tips for growing gourds in northern latitudes:

Attention! Frost will not damage the fruits themselves, but frost is detrimental to the seeds. So if you want to save the seeds, dry your pumpkins indoors!

How to clean and process fruits

When the pumpkins are completely dry, they will become very light and, if you shake them, you can hear the seeds rattling inside. Now it's time to start cleaning. Let's start by removing the dried outer skin. Soak the fruits in water for an hour, advise the authors of the Encyclopedia of Pumpkin Crafts (Lark Books, 1996), and then put the pumpkins in a plastic bag or wrap them in an old damp towel and leave them in the sun for several hours. After this, remove the softened skin with a copper washcloth. You cannot use sandpaper - it will scratch the smooth surface of the peel. After removing the skin, rinse the pumpkin and let it dry.

Now you need to decide what exactly you will make from the pumpkin. I'll share my experience. In just an hour, I created a simple but rather elegant vase with a lid (a tureen, if you will) from a Bushel pumpkin. I cut out the top with a jigsaw - the lid is ready, coated the outside with linseed oil - that's all! Pumpkin can be processed like wood: sawed with a saw, cut with a chisel, drilled with a drill, processed with a file, burned, sawed out with a jigsaw, carved (both manually and with a power tool), and then stained, painted, covered with drying oil, varnish, and so on.

Attention! When you open the pumpkin (to remove the seeds and dried pulp), be sure to pour water into it and then pour it out - so that the caustic dust does not get into your nose!

How to dry a pumpkin for decoration? But in order to use this undoubtedly creative vegetable to create interior items and interesting design solutions, you need prepare correctly pumpkin
The most important step for this is drying. She is the one who makes the pumpkin so tough that it can serve its owners for many years as a craft.
In our article we will tell you in detail about how the drying process itself occurs. How to prepare pumpkin for drying? It is very important to properly prepare the pumpkin for the drying process, and we are not talking about preliminary work before the process itself.
You can learn about this from our other article.
You need to approach directly choosing the pumpkin itself- after all, this is the key to proper drying. Not every pumpkin variety is suitable for making crafts from.
Hundreds of pumpkins are grown in special greenhouses every year. ornamental breeds, which are just suitable for the creations of masters.
Explore information about varieties of decorative pumpkins and select them by appearance. As a rule, such a pumpkin has a more rounded shape and more pronounced bulges. The color of this pumpkin is even and brown.
Also, in addition to the fact that the pumpkin must be of a special variety, it must be completely healthy in order to adequately endure the drying process. First of all, such a pumpkin should have a uniform color, without obvious signs rot or mold.
Also the pumpkin should have stalk. Unfortunately, drying is impossible without it. From the hole where the stalk connects to the vegetable during drying, juice may leak out and the whole process will be done down the drain. You should also evaluate the pumpkin by touch. It should be far from soft, rather more hard.
Shouldn't be on a vegetable damage. Also, do not take a pumpkin that is too large to dry at home. Most likely, such drying will be doomed to failure.
The next step in preparing the pumpkin is your own, but at home. At home, you must carefully prepare the pumpkin for the drying process. For this, peel the pumpkin from visible dirt by carefully wiping it with a cloth. Now put the pumpkin under the shower and rinse on several sides with slightly warm water. Do not apply too much pressure as this may damage the skin of the vegetable.
After the pumpkin is washed, pat it thoroughly with a towel, removing any wet drops. Leave the pumpkin for an hour dark and dry room, and then blot again with a towel and dry for another hour. When you feel the top surface of the vegetable absolutely dry– you can proceed to the next stage.
How to dry a pumpkin for crafts? You can dry the pumpkin either whole or in parts. Depending on what purpose you are pursuing from drying decide on the view pumpkins. If you want to cut a vegetable, cut the pumpkin into arbitrary pieces, after removing the seeds.

Tools and devices
What to dry pumpkin in? You can dry pumpkin using different means.
Depending on how you want to see the vegetable in the end, you can resort to different technical devices.
Many people dry pumpkin the old fashioned way. in the room, but few people know that it is big risk.
During this time, the pumpkin may become moldy or begin to deteriorate. Therefore, it is better to leave the natural drying process and use new technologies.
Drying can be done either in the oven, in a convection oven, in an electric dryer or in a microwave oven. There are a lot of options - the main thing is clear compliance with the rules drying and then the desired result will not take long to arrive.
At what temperature should you dry pumpkin? Drying pumpkin can be done with different temperatures depending on the technology used in this process. So, pumpkin drying can occur at a temperature of 80 degrees in the oven.
The pumpkin should be in the center of the oven. You need rotate periodically vegetable clockwise.
IN convection oven the temperature of the effect on the pumpkin will be already 70 degrees. Drying in electric dryer implies a temperature of as much as 80 degrees. Microwave contains a small percentage of pumpkin, but it is dried in 600 Watt mode.
The drying process in any of the above devices implies that during the process the pumpkin must be turned from side to side to prevent burning pumpkin on one of the sides.

How to determine readiness?
The readiness of the pumpkin can be determined by its appearance as well as its taste. If you want to rely on appearance, then first of all the vegetable must have brownish tint, both peel and pulp. The pumpkin's crust should be tough, and the flesh should not be sticky or wet, but dried.
If you taste dried pumpkin, it should knit your mouth a little but don't be raw. This is the basic rule for checking the readiness of this vegetable.

Storage
We have already talked about this and for consumption in our articles.
Firstly, do not leave the pumpkin in a damp and humid room and, if possible, reduce contact with moisture to zero.
The pumpkin must be kept in a place where the temperature does not exceed 30 degrees and does not fall below ten.
How to store pumpkin crafts? It is necessary to cover them on top with some kind of coated in order to prevent spoilage of the vegetable.
For example, it may be colorless furniture varnish or nail polish. In any case, careful protection of the vegetable from all kinds of cracking and moisture is necessary.
How to store decorative pumpkin? It is necessary to store pumpkin in a dark and dry place. You cannot keep dried vegetables outside in both cold and warm seasons. Also, do not forget that such vegetables react very sensitively to temperature changes, so don't let this happen.
Excess moisture promotes the formation mold or rot. The problem of pumpkin spoilage is also common. rodents or insects. Take a closer look at this phenomenon.

Instructions
Dried pumpkin: how to use? If you want to dry a pumpkin that you will use as a craft, you need to do your research carefully. How to properly dry a pumpkin for crafts?
Firstly, process the vegetable exactly as we wrote in the first paragraph. Then try to rinse the pumpkin under warm water, getting rid of any surface changes. Do not injure the pumpkin or cut anything off it.
After drying the pumpkin with a towel, leave it in well ventilated place for a day. These actions are the beginning of the drying process itself.
The pumpkin should be loaded into the oven itself at the moment when the cabinet hasn't warmed up yet. The tray with the pumpkin must be dry. Remember that the pieces must be stirred constantly. If we are talking about a whole pumpkin, then turn it over.

Entirely
How to dry a whole decorative pumpkin for crafts?
You can only use a whole pumpkin two ways- using various devices for this or the usual way of waiting.
Let's talk about the first method. Pumpkin has been dried in the oven for a very long time, but drying the whole pumpkin is difficult. very difficult task.
In order for the fruit to dry well and reach its condition, choose not too big copies. Also, do not forget that such a pumpkin should be prepared in advance.
Now let's do the oven. Preheat the oven to a temperature of approximately sixty degrees. Place special baking paper on a baking sheet and place the pumpkin. Turn the pumpkin over periodically, allowing each side to dry. Drying may occur from two to eight hours depending on the size of the vegetable.
If your oven is not designed to accommodate such a large fruit, you can do it differently. After preparing the pumpkin, leave it in dry and dark place. Check your pumpkin periodically to spot signs. rotting.
This is usually caused by high humidity or insects. As a rule, pumpkins are dried at home without exposure to heat. about three months.

For Halloween
You should also remember that to make a holiday pumpkin you need to select decorative pumpkin varieties, but not hard, because otherwise you will not be able to cut anything from such a fruit.
How to dry a pumpkin for Halloween? Halloween pumpkins should not be dried out too much. The pulp should remain inside slightly damp. Therefore, it is recommended to prepare the vegetable not three, but two or one and a half months in advance.

Bottle shop
How to dry bottle gourd? Bottle gourd is much smaller than ordinary and decorative, and therefore dries much faster. To dry such a pumpkin, you need to place it in the oven for a couple of hours at a temperature 40 degrees or leave it on a couple of months in a dry, dark room.

Quick ways
How to quickly dry a pumpkin for crafts? If you want to quickly dry the pumpkin, use a regular home hair dryer.
If your vegetable is small, that’s enough for you. a couple of hours to dry its crust with warm air.
Remember that you need to tinker with such a pumpkin more careful. From sudden overheating, the crust may well crack.
Drying pumpkins isn't that difficult, so don't be afraid to do it. at home. Are you sure that the methods we have listed will be useful to you in the future for creating incredible crafts and things.