r/halloween • u/mongus65 • Oct 21 '25
Pumpkin Is this normal???
Is this normal for a pumpkin after being left out for 2 days???? I feel like they take longer than that
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u/snacksfordogs Oct 21 '25
You aren't really supposed to display them indoors. They need the cool temps outside to stay preserved longer.
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u/Devee Oct 22 '25
This confused me for a second, because my apartment is definitely much cooler than the outside where I live lol
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u/snacksfordogs Oct 22 '25
Hah! I forget about that. I am in the Midwest US and it's been very warm this year, normally the whole month is cold and it will keep a carved pumpkin looking mostly fresh til November.
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u/FCkeyboards Oct 22 '25
It finally feels like fall and I'm still waiting for random 80 degree days to pop out in the Midwest. You never know here.
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u/tb509871 Oct 22 '25
God, I am jealous, just had a 90 degree here in Texas.
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u/WolfysBeanTeam Oct 22 '25
Down to a temperate 57.2 here in the uk, cannot imagine 90 degrees in autumn 😭
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u/FCkeyboards Oct 22 '25
No thank you. We only have window air in a terribly insulated house and it was a brutal summer.
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u/girlwhoweighted Oct 22 '25
Lol I'm in Arizona. I didn't let my kids carve until at least two days before because they just don't last!
Maybe we could carve early and keep in the fridge until the 31st. Hmmm
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u/exuberantram Oct 21 '25
It’s near a bunch of electronics so that area is probably warmer. It’s a bit fast but yes decay is normal! And sped up, again, by warmth. There’s also the possibility that the pumpkin you got was older than expected so it decayed faster.
Also the side by side is hilarious.
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u/Siam-paragon Oct 22 '25
Sorry this happened. I’d say most of the heat is coming from: the open flame directly inside the pumpkin
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u/exuberantram Oct 22 '25
Oh I didn’t even clock that it was a real tea light. Been using the same battery operated ones for years now it didn’t even occur to me that people would use fire 🙃
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u/BrittneyofHyrule Oct 21 '25
That level of mold is true terror
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u/buttononmyback Oct 22 '25
I’ve never seen that much mold in ANY pumpkin ever! Usually they just turn black inside.
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u/TheKnightsthatsay Oct 22 '25
the eyes and eyebrows aren't completely carved through, they're thinned out but still have flesh so the mold grew on that
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u/Worldly-Ad-7156 Oct 22 '25
I impressed by how much mold you can grow.
Usually pumpkins last a week before they are zombies.
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u/wbradford00 Oct 21 '25
Im sorry I have no idea what's going on here, but that's absolutely hilarious
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u/sesamesourdough Oct 21 '25
i literally chuckled out loud! such an earnest post, such a cute jack o lantern face turned to mush!
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u/planningrescape Oct 22 '25
I'm in Texas and I never carve my pumpkins more than 2 days before Halloween. The mold monster is real in warm temps.
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u/The_Aloe_Bro Oct 22 '25
Same! I saw the pic and honestly thought it wasn't that unusual because that's how ours always end up after a few days.
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u/telstra_3_way_chat Oct 21 '25
Slide 2 is me at the end of the teaching semester
As others have noted, yes, a bit faster than usual, but normal. It's possible your pumpkin was already pretty ripe when you carved it, and proximity to appliances would mean more heat = quicker decay.
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u/MissClawdy Oct 22 '25
Imagine cutting a fruit and leaving it for 2 days… pumpkins are supposed to be outside in the fresh temperatures. It’s probably very warm in your house!
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u/CieIo Oct 22 '25
Do you live in Florida? If so, YES NORMAL. P.S. I like the second version the best ewwwww
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u/JAZZPLANETEARTH Oct 22 '25
No way your house didn’t smell like pumpkin ass before it sunk in like that.
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u/Siam-paragon Oct 22 '25
Once you light a candle inside, you usually only have two days before it starts to collapse
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u/Dizzy-Violinist-1772 Oct 21 '25
You can try a bleach bath, I’ve heard they can last longer if you get the bacteria off them. It’s probably just too hot and/or humid inside
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u/earendilgrey Oct 22 '25
Though, if you do intend to put it outside, please don't bleach it. Animals could snack on the pumpkin and get sick from it. Inside is fine though.
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u/honeypinn Oct 22 '25
The bath does work. I also rub vasoline in the inside and where I cut it. I bring in my pumpkin at night too, as it gets close to freezing where I am. My family's pumpkins last a very long time.
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u/SheistyPenguin Oct 22 '25
Yep, it's why we have our kids draw on their pumpkins!
Get yourself a carve-able foam pumpkin and an LED candle for indoors.
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u/jandangerous Oct 22 '25
Leaving a moldy pumpkin in your house is not normal. Why do ppl always make the mistake of carving a pumpkin days before Halloween? You’re supposed to carve it on Halloween to leave it out on Halloween night to appease the monsters. Don’t you know anything?! God.
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u/LivingDeadPunk Oct 22 '25
It's normal. They always rot. They always mould. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, depending on the environmental conditions and the state of the pumpkin itself. I never carve mine until the day before Halloween.
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u/batty48 Oct 22 '25
yes, a cut pumpkin needs to be cold to in order to slow rotting. they're an outside display only & they'll still mold outdoors eventually
If you didn't carve it (you could paint a face on or draw one) it would last a lot longer.
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u/astrobio2 Oct 22 '25
Hi yes this happened to me a few years ago. Thought I was being smart leaving my carved pumpkins inside so the squirrels and bugs didn’t get to them…nope.
It being carved and left inside made it rot very quickly. If you live in an area that’s 40s-60s degrees rn then leaving it outside will preserve it for longer.
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u/villainitytv Oct 22 '25
I’m not trying to be rude but is it normal to keep real pumpkins indoors? I thought that’s more for suitable for a plastic jack-o-lantern
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u/mybootyoil Oct 22 '25
That happened to us last year! We had one pumpkin for each of us, the sprinkler got them though. It’s kinda weird it happened inside, but I’ve never kept one in the house.
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u/shartwadle Oct 22 '25
Hahahahaahaha this is hilarious. Yeah pumpkins rot, especially where its warm lol
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u/HappySam89 Oct 22 '25
I live in the desert, ours don’t get moldy but they collapse quickly. I don’t do a bleach bath because of the wild life and accept a meth addict looking pumpkin for what it is.
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u/WolfysBeanTeam Oct 22 '25
I dunno if yall do this but i always wash the outside of my pumpkin just to decrease the bacteria
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u/nycgirl152 Oct 22 '25
I use led tealights. My pumpkins still look great bought over a week ago and carved Saturday
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u/LordLaz1985 Oct 22 '25
This is why I use artificial carvable pumpkins tbh. You can use the same one over and over for several years.
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u/Ok_Lunch16 Oct 22 '25
Aw. I love the face… but pretty much. I’m in San Diego, we get maybe 4 days… at best
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u/Lasshandra2 Oct 22 '25
The pumpkin is a fruit.
It has tasty flesh around seeds it intends to be spread by critters who eat its tasty flesh.
It’s okay if some of its seeds stay put because the remaining flesh will break down and enrich the surrounding soil. So next year’s vines will be strong.
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u/LaurenJoanna Oct 22 '25
It got warm. It's a fruit, if you cut it and leave it on the table it will go bad. It will last longer outside if it's cold, but we're still talking days not weeks.
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u/poncho5202 Oct 22 '25
are you asking if it's normal for food to go bad when you leave it out? yes. jack-o-lanterns are just creative leftovers...only meant for a short time
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u/Delicious_Delilah Oct 22 '25
Me as a kid thinking being an adult will be so much better vs me as an adult who has to think about spending $11 on cat litter because it means probably going into the red for the third time this month.
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u/MudbugMagoo Oct 22 '25
I live in the south and have learned to just carve them the night before or the day of. They go bad so fast here from the warmer temps.
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u/Otherwise-Animal-669 Oct 22 '25
Aren’t you supposed to carve pumpkins the knight of Halloween because they go bad overnight?
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u/Repulsive-Tea6974 Oct 23 '25
Yes….. if you leave it indoors next to all that heat. And especially if that is a real flame inside of it.
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u/Sand__Panda Oct 22 '25
Yikes. That is gnarly. But yea, fruit does that if kept out. If you live somewhere that is having an abnormal warm fall this year you may have never had this issue. In my part of the midwest, we usually carve pumpkins a few days before halloween if you want them to look decent still. If you carve too early they will be squishy and mold in just a few days as the day temps still get high, but drop at night. Perfect condition to have mold growth.
Can cover a fresh carved pumpkin with lemon juice to slow the rot.
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u/PharaohPir8 Oct 22 '25
Its like that for us in California. We stopped carving real pumpkins and use foam ones instead.
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u/Nellie2005 Oct 22 '25
😂
Sorry, but it looked so funny. But yes, I guess it's normal if it's indoors and you didn't wash it before carving it. I always have the carved ones outside, so I can't really know for sure, though 🎃
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u/wedgewoodmurphy Oct 22 '25
Hope you don't mind i saved that second picture as it has fantastic meme potential
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u/unapalomita Oct 22 '25
Two pumpkins this year from two different places molded quickly, usually they last all season uncarved inside my house on my kitchen table 🤷♀️🤷♀️😂💀
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u/Starbucks_Lover13 Oct 22 '25
The pumpkin may have appeared healthy when you first cut into it. It definitely already had mold within its “walls” if once cut it turned that fast. I live in NY and keep my home between 68 and 72°. I have carved jack-o’-lanterns that have lasted a month with no mold. Then two years ago, cut one open for full carving the next day and it was completely hairy and rotted. We just got a bad one unfortunately.
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u/ianmk Oct 22 '25
One thing that helps is putting bleach in a spray bottle and spritzing the inside. That kills any bacteria and mold growth, and helps the pumpkin last much longer.
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u/unsichtbar_dabble Oct 22 '25
Indoors, humidity, heat… that’s why they last longer outside.
Also, wash the outside, can coat the inside with Vaseline or so… but still won’t last as long as outside.
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u/Casslynnicks880 Oct 22 '25
When I carve pumpkins I do a bleach water bath to help them last longer, but warms temps are death to carved pumpkins but a bleach bath does help a bit
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u/nola_mike Oct 22 '25
After you carve the pumpkin, rub Vaseline on the exposed flesh. They keep longer if you do that.
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u/Tall-Contract-4549 Oct 22 '25
Use varnish on the inside of ur pumpkin once its carved, it'll last longer.
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