A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Pumpkin ???

My pumpkins are growing great and putting out tons of flowers. I need to find out why the baby pumpkins are falling off of the vine. I've had quite a few little babies but they always disappear

What would make the pumpkins fall off of the vine?

G-Mom

Hi G-mom it appears to be natural. I was reading an article that said a harvest of 2 or 3 pumpkins per vine is a good harvest. But all the female pumpkin flowers start out with a little pumpkin. Does that sound right?

I guess it sounds about right,I don't realy know as I've never grown them before. It sure is dissappointing to have cute little balls one day and then none the next.

G-Mom

g-mom, the baby pumpkins will fall off when they haven't been pollinated well enough. But as long as you have 2 good ones on a vine, your'e fine. Too many on a vine, you'll just end up with mini pumpkins like I did.

Got any new pics??
Meg

On 2 of the vines I was going to remove all but one of the pumkins,so I would have 2 big ones and a bunch of little ones. The seeds I purchased said they grow to an average of 100lbs. Should I be out there pollinating them?

Here they are...



G-Mom

They look great g-mom!! Yea, try pollinating a few of them. Take a male flower, carefully remove the petals if you can (not necessary, but easier to pollinate without them), and move the male flower's center piece into the middle of the female flower. (You could even just leave the male flower piece stuck in the female flower too.) Worked great for me! (I had toooooo many pollinated then!) LOL. I had LOTS of bees too.

You can also take a q-tip and swipe pollen from the male flower, and put it on the female flower, but I don't think it works as well.

Meg

Ummmm...how do you tell the males from the females? It's not like I can check between their legs

Female flowers will have a little ball underneath them.. if they are pollenated well enough, the flower will eventually drop off, the the baby pumpkin underneath will start to grow. If it's not pollinated, the baby pumpkin will simply fall off.

Female flower-




Also a way to tell, is the male flower only has one piece in the center of the flower.. the female has about 5-6 pieces in the center of the flower.. that's what you want to pollenate, down in the middle of the flower.

Here's a good link to explain it more-
pumpkin nook - pollination

Meg

Great spot, Meg

G-Mom

That was a kewl read.I never found that when wondered which was my watermelon and which was my pumpkin.I finaly decided that being the pumpkin was 57 days and watermelon 90 it must be be pumpkin.I got 4 growing 1 has fell off and one didn't pollinate right so is yellowing.I'll play the sex game.I got a good rolling stone CD for that .I sowed 5 more seeds of pumpkin when started getting females open and will sow some more in July.
So how long till start growing do they turn orange?????????
oh I also get to grow 2 vines that will have slingshot hammocks for pumpkins developed above ground.1 so far.the other vine I may luck out and will return earthbound as female with the guys on top...hope she likes it. :rolleyes: lol

I had a double flowered male flower on a vine this morning.is neat it formed from same spot and kinda split into 2 male flowers.Yeah took a picture but will likely be fall or harvest by the time i get it unloaded from camera and loaded online for veiwing.


so how common are double flowers like that?anyone evr get any??