im starting to lose all hope

[darkcrystal]

whats with me, maby i am not supposed to be a gardner. first im poisioning my tomatos, and now its the pumpkins again.............i found two lovley flowers forming on my pumpkins they started to open and now they have died before really opening, i was getting really excited about it....im feeding them and watering them but the flowers dont want to open properly this is three flowers now that have just died off...the first one could of been slugs but these two are complete no nibbles or anything......
seriously people are going to be fed up with me moaning and i really feel like not bothering next year.

[shirlthegirl43]

Don't give up yet. The first flowers on pumpkins are usually male ones anyhoo so they don't matter. You will be able to tell the female flower as it has a mini pumpkin behind it. They seem to take a few flowers to get into stride (well mine do).

[Two_Sheds]

I think you are just too early.
It's only just warm enough for pumpkins ... I only sowed mine a fortnight ago, there won't be any flowers for a few weeks yet. But, they'll catch your early ones up!

[darkcrystal]

i have taken a couple of photos i will put them on the album now see what you think

[smallblueplanet]

Are the flowers that are dropping off unpollinated female flowers? Sometimes you get male and female flowers appearing at different times so early on there may be no male flower to pollinate the female?

Or it could be a bit cold and wet for them, its still early in the growing season as 2-sheds says.

[darkcrystal]

i have no idea, because i dont know the diffrence between male and female flowers

[smallblueplanet]

Female cucurbits (squash, melons etc) have a little round bump behind the flower. Its the 'baby' fruit. Male flowers have straight stems.

Patience grasshopper there's plenty of time yet, its very early in the growing season.

[darkcrystal]

its the male flowers that keep dying off before they open properly

[shirlthegirl43]

That is usually the way it goes. No need to worry about the male ones until the female flowers appear. Be patient, they will do what they do.

[Herbie]

Don't give up just yet, it can be really frustrating but its a learning curve. We are very lucky that lots of people on here tackled the curve before we did

Hang on in there it will come good. This year is the first year that I have managed to grow parsnips after many failures, thanks to some good instruction about germinating the seed on kitchen towel, I now have my first proper row of snips

[FionaH]

It is frustrating but if it makes you feel any better I have killed off 5 cucumbers so far! Stick with it

[snohare]

I've been gardening for years darkcrystal, and I am still having problems with the plants you are having problems with ! I haven't grown them before, so when all sorts of things go wrong I am just about as at a loss as you.
But I remember when it was like that with everything I did with veggies, and now people even ask me for advice. So stick with it, it is just a case of practice, practice, practice; we all do things wrong every year and lose plants, that's how we all learn...if you look at some of the old threads from last year, there was a great big one at the end of the growing season detailing all the things people wouldn't do again - everyone contributed !

[darkcrystal]

thank you everyone for the replies, it makes me feel better, i think my problem is i get too excited and start thinking of picking the fruit off, so when things dont go to plan i get very frustraited.....

oh i have a genural question about the pumpkins, i was reading that i might have to put the pollon from the male flower in to the female flower, because of the lack of bees is that true?

[dominic10]

I've read you can use a paint brush to pollinate or take the male flower off and just brush it against the female plant. Never done it though. Good luck and don't lose heart I am on my 3rd round of trying to grow butternut squash...

[BFG]

Maybe plant some fruit as well. It's more plant and forget than veg and should pay you back for years.

I'm a rubbish veg grower, as I'm a bit neglectful sometimes, but I'm doing really well with fruit so far.

Or choose easy crops. Strawberries and spuds do really well for me, without much intervention.