Some help with my pumpkins please???

Hi everyone,
My name is Lucy and I decided this year to plant my own pumpkins, thing is I'm not exactly 'green fingered' lol. I planted my seeds in small pots indoors in may then once they were big enough i transfered them into the garden in a nice sunny spot and have regularly watered them etc etc. They have been out there now for a while now and although the leaves are lush and green and the flowers are coming through thick and bright I havent seen any evidence of pumpkins!?!?!?!
Is this a good or bad sign?
I've been looking on web pages and cant seem to find a solution. I have read about hand pollinating but the instructions arent very clear and confuse me.
If anyone could give me some advice and help I would be truly grateful, I'd like to prove people wrong and actually grow something lol.
Thankyou for taking the time to read this
Lucy x

 

Hi Lucy & welcome to the forum,

If the flowers are coming then its a good sign, they'll put out a few male flowers first, the female ones will follow, just look for a swelling behind the flower & strip the petals from the male flower & give the female a damn good, no, can't say that on an open forum :dh: The bees will usually do it for you. Havn't touched the one in the west bay plot, but its set 3 pumps already. Slide a bit of mat or straw under the pumps to stop any rot from the damp ground & feed the roots of the plant with a liquid feed as the pumps swell.

Good luck

 

You need to hurry Lucy time is running out now.

Presumably pollination has been your problem.

You need to move pollen from the male flowers to an open female flower, if the bees are not doing the job for you.
Male flowers are just on a stalk, females have a swelling on the stalk, you need to look closely.

Get a small paint brush and on a dry sunny morning push it into an open male flower and then into an open female, nature does the rest.

 

I Love it when you talk dirty Pete :lollol:

A Cardiologist's Funeral



A very prestigious cardiologist died, and was given a very elaborate

funeral by the hospital he worked for most of his life... A huge

heart... covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service

as all the doctors from the hospital sat in awe. Following the eulogy,

the heart opened, and the casket rolled inside. The heart then closed,

sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever..



At that point, one of the mourners just -burst- into laughter. When all

eyes stared at him, he said, 'I am so sorry, I was just thinking of my

own funeral... I'm a gynecologist.'

 

:D Ziggy, your rambling mate.

 

Too true, I'll wander off & look for the aurora now. Could be a good one if the clouds clear.

 

Nah, i'm done. Good advice there John, lets hope pumkins happen for Lucy.

 

Thankyou all so much for the help.
Just been out to have a look and only had male flowers today, got lots of green buds on all three plants though, so i shall be checking in the morning for female flowers and fingers crossed i'll be able pollinate.
Thankyou all again, shall keep you updated x

 

I have the same issue; I have lots of buds but the ones that have been flowering are all males. I see the odd female bud (I can notice the difference between the two now that I have both types!), but they are still smallish and green. I'm hoping they'll grow in size soon like the male buds have been and I drop lucky.

 

Ive been waiting and watching for a few days and my buds that i believe to be female dont seem to be moving along very well, and i'm worried i'm running out of time.
The buds are green with what look like little green balls behind them, is this a female flower??? And would it be worth pinching the top open to move things along??

 

The ones with the green balls behind are female flowers, there is nothing you can do until the flowers open naturally.

 

Female flowers have now been pollinated. Fingers crossed i'll have some pumpkins soon:yho: