If you've already completed your masterpiece, keeping your pumpkin in a cool, shady place can keep it from rotting more quickly in the hot sun. Lighting your jack-o'-lantern with a candle inside ...

Mike Garrett said that he hasn’t had many problems with rotting pumpkins and that he ended up with around 84,000 pounds or 5,300 pumpkins. In a good year, Garrett said he picked 175,000 pounds.

The problem with starting the celebrations too early is that a major autumn mainstay, the humble pumpkin, is really just a fruit—and fruit gets old and ugly. If you carve too early, that jack-o ...