The Dreaded Pumpkin Rot

Last week it was close to freezing some nights but this week we've hit the low 70's during the day. We deliberately hold off on buying pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns until early to mid October hoping to ward off losing any pumpkins to rot prior to carving for Halloween. We try to screen out any pumpkins with soft bruise-like spots. Unfortunately we discovered a moldy rot hole that penetrated the entire rind on one of our larger tall pumpkins. It was only a dry hard scar-like blemish when we purchased the pumpkin. Anyone who has carved their fair share of pumpkins over the years knows how disgusting it can be to open up a pumpkin that's riddled with black mold inside (typically gets in through a rot hole somewhere in the stem), so we put this particular pumpkin "out to pasture" in the back yard and bought 4 more large pumpkins tonight at our local Wegmans grocery store to bring our total count up to 14 now after losing the one. Our hope is to have at least 12 jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. We sprayed all the pumpkins down tonight with a mixture of white vinegar and water in hopes of keeping them stable until Friday or Saturday when we plan to carve them. In the past we've sprayed our jack-o-lanterns with a water and vinegar solution after carving them, but never thought to do it before hand. Article: Maintain your fall and Halloween décor for longer with this vinegar trick