You Only Need One Pumpkin Preservation Hack This Year - Here's How To Do It

Oct 15, 2018

You've managed to carve a pumpkin that is a work of art, putting it on the rail of your front porch for everyone to see. After a few days, his smile is already drooping, his orange pumpkin-skin is puffy and unappetizing. He quickly begins to appear less beautiful, and more like a child made him in their kindergarten class.

You knew he would begin to rot, but you never expected it would happen so quickly! Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to make your Jack-o'-Lantern last a little longer.

Most pumpkins only last about a week after they are carved depending on the temperature outside and how much moisture is in the air. A recent experiment featured five different techniques to see which one would make a Jack-o'-Lantern last longer. Vaseline, bleach, vinegar, hairspray, and vegetable oil were put on each pumpkin in the experiment.

After the pumpkins were treated, they were left with the product on them for a week to see what would happen to them. Some of the products worked much better than others. One of the products that were used smashed the others, resulting in a pumpkin that looked like it did when it was first carved. When you use the products on the pumpkins, you need to make sure it gets all on the outside as well as the inside for the best results.

Vegetable oil clearly had the worst effect on the pumpkin. The jack-o-lantern was slouched and moldy - and according to the woman carrying out the experiment, it also collected ants over a period of a week.

Bleach had slightly better results - no ants, and the carving was still in pretty good shape! The pumpkin, however, was a little moldy, and you could tell it had sunken quite a bit over the week.

Last, but not least, the vaseline seemed to do the trick! The vaseline-soaked jack-o-lantern had barely sunken at all, it's smile was still intact, and it had a beautiful glossy sheen that made it appear as if it had only been carved a day or two ago. This hack was definitely the winner!

Feel free to test out these hacks at home to see which one works best for you - and let us know how it turns out in the comments! Do you have any other pumpkin-carving hacks? Feel free to tell us your ideas and don't forget to show this article to your friends and family so their pumpkins will last longer this Halloween, too!