Pumpkin Flowers

[nerobot]

Am I right in thinking that pumpkins have both male and female flowers and need to pollenate female with male flowers?

Steven

[milly2306]

hi
yes you are right. I take a male flower and put it onto the female one, i do this a couple of times with new male flowers to the female one and it must be doing something because the pumpkins are swelling nicely. If i'm telling you the wrong info i'm sure someone else will let us know
good luck
xxxmillyxxx

[nerobot]

How do you tell the difference between male and female flowers? I only have one so far and not sure which it is.

Steven

[milly2306]

hi
the female flowers have a small pumkin behind them and the males don't
xxxmillyxxx

[Alison]

You almost always get the male flowers first which simply have a thin stem behind the flower. Then the female ones come along with a teeny little pumpkin behind. The flowers are all big yellow ones and unless they're inside (which is a bit pointless in this country) they'll be pollinated quite well without you doing anything.

[nerobot]

Oh yes. I can see it's a male flower now. Can also see some female flowers developing with the little pumpkin behind it. Quite cute. Think I'll leave them to themselves and see what happens without hand pollenating.

Steven

[Matt.]

Its your call but hand pollonating takes less than a minute. From experince there is nothing worse than seeing your pumpkin go brown and rot as the plant aborts it because its not been fertilised.

[miss_corerupted]

i think that has just happened to mine. going to try and hand fertlizer the rest now

[MaureenHall]

I've got loads of baby pumpkins but no flowers open yet!!! Fingers crossed they'll open soon 'cos otherwise there'll be none for Halloween

[Matt.]

If the female flower is almost mature but not open I'll get a male flower and open the female by hand. You can pollonate and then allow the female to close back up. Its ideal if you don't visit your pumpkins every day.

[busylizzy]

Pumpkins

Hi All

Sorry a bit of a novice I have just put my pumpkins in different places around my garden but dont know if they will pollinate! Do they have to be near each other...... I have planted them a bit late but am hoping they will come out by November ....Any tips on getting them really big...

Ta Busylizzy

[Squeaky]

hi me too.... i planted mine about a month ago and they are going quite well-apart from the slugs taking a liking to them! i havent pollinated them (how do you do this?-sorry very novie) but they seem to be going ok.any tips?