Pumpkin

My Pumpkin plant is about 2 feet long should I take the tip off to encourage flowering as there are no flowers yet. I want 2 pumpkins idealy as I have 2 children should I just keep 2 flowers (if I do ever get them)???

Thanks

Dave

 

Hi Davidguy, your plant is not big enough yet to support any fruit. You need to let each sideshoot grow a male flower then when the next female flower appears cut the shoot just above the female flower. Only allow 2 or 3 fruit per plant. David.

 

Hi davidguy, have you gotten any pumpkins for your children yet?


Here is a pic of a baby one still with flower that I took today -




Here are some blooms of the small green African pumpkin that I posted in the Courgette thread -

 

I heard you have to pollinate the female flower from a male flower. Is this correct ?

 

I don't know if you really have to oktarine, but we don't take any chances of the bees doing their job properly and Hubby does it.

 

I didn't have any problems. It just took a long time for the female flowers to appear but as soon as they did the fruit started forming.

 

Geoff, we have had this too, that the female flowers bloom and start producing baby pumpkins or courgettes. However, before they got too big, they started going soft or rotting and fell off. So we figured that they hadn't been pollinated properly/at all, and that is why Hubby took over the job of the bees!

 

It could well be the weather. Cool weather might not help pollination. Its not just a matter of lack of flying insects. It can also be that the pollen might not run if it is too cool. When my courgettes have fallen off its been damp and cold. When its hot they seem to have turned into marrows before the flowers have faded!

 

Hi Kedi-Gato

I will try to sort out how to put photo's on here and get back to you. Don't get topo excited things haven't gone quite as planned, lets just say Haloween may be a smaller celebration than originally hoped for!!!!

 

David, I've got my fingers crossed for you too, be a shame if the kids are disappointed.

 

Never mind disappointed they are talking of leaving home if I can't get my act together and time is getting short.
I have signed up for photobucket just got to work out how to get the photo's off the camera and then on here. I may have to do this later today as I need to go to wofor a couple of hours.

Dave

 

I've got some decent size pumpkins without pollinating them myself, but now the blighter looks like it's got powdery mildew. I'm just hoping it won't die til Halloween, but that's a while away, so it's looking very much like a Tesco special again this year!

 

Hi All

Please see the pictures of my Pumpkin plant, looks like I am off to the Supermarket as well!! Still the greenhouse looks OK.





The Pumpkin that fell off



The Greenhouse

 

I like your growbags David.

 

Great aren't they!!

Don't tell the fishermen