Hi regaldozer, Don't go by what I say (if someone else contradicts it), I have only been growing Pumpkins for 3 years and by all accounts,my garden is supernaturally blessed, so what I accomplish ,may not translate to others..... But... in the 3 years, all of mine turn orange and grow until picked. But.... Honestly, I don't even know what (AG,s or field pumpkins) are... I didn't even know there were different kinds, I just go to Wal-mart, look at the pictures on the seed packages and plant. This year however, someone gave me a seed that would supposedly grow to 500 lbs.... we'll see ;-) So Far So Good ;-)

You can pick out separate seedlings carefully, transplant them into successively bigger plastic cups & then into actual containers with intent to stall until can work the ground. Watch out for over watering & be consistent in the planting mix you use. ((See G.W.'s hydroponics & container forums for growing medium you can adapt in the interim.) As for pumpkins & all the ground vine crops: seeds tend to jump up robustly & they really do not like their roots disturbed once they are big.

If i correctly remember a university study I recently read, it's best to wait for the pumpkin to have a 50/50 orange-green ratio before removing it from the vine if you expect it to ripen. Remove it early if frost or disease is threatening it, but otherwise keep it on the vine until it is fully orange, and harvest 3-30'ish days after. However, I would keep it on the vine for as long as need be. I've never heard of any food tasting better by ripening off the vine (enlighten me if I am incorrect). I've noticed that some of my pumpkins have any random combination of: grow fast or slow, stop growing, start to turn orange, pause, orange up, pause, then last green stripes disappear. Just be patient. Turn your pumpkin so the greenist part gets sun too (be careful not to damage the vine). Heat can also help (stay below 85F ?). One of my vines with a pumpkin is starting to slowly die one leaf at a time, so I placed a sheet of aluminum foil behind the fruit (shade side) to reflect some light back to help speed the process (works for tomatoes). I assume the front is getting enough sun because of my setup. Watch out for sunscald. It happens when a shaded pumpkin is suddenly exposed to full sunlight. It's mainly from damaged or diseased leafs quickly exposing fruit. Lots of good info on the web; if it applies to you.

I wanted to see how my first crop of Spaghetti Squash was doing so I did pick the biggest one i had (yes still on the white side). It microwaved up just fine (I have done this before with storebot ones), but it was harder to get it to flake out the strands -- they were not all yet formed up and had higher water content. It made a good pile if a little slushy -- mostly broken strands. One good thing: it seems that the part that was NOT yet ripe enough to flake into strands can still be eaten in chunks just like a regular squash -- just slice it away from the skin and eat like regular squash or zuchhini. So, if you do not want to get backed way up with a lot of ripe squash, you can pick some early but with a few 'issues'