Pumpkin pollination

[Matt.]

I have quite a lot of pumkins growing on my allotment and all have started to produce female flowers. Over the last couple of weeks these have been swelling and now some are the size of tennis balls. The thing is I haven't had any male flowers open for pollination. How long will a pumpkin continue to grow before it fails due to lack of pollination?

Obviously my pumpkins could be pollinated by pumpkins growing elsewhere but I'd doubt they've been pollinated by my plants!

[CloveGirl]

I'd love to know the answer to this too. I've had a couple of the 'baby pumpkins' on my plants turn brown and fall off, and I'm not sure whether this means that they weren't pollinated, or that they have been got at by some kind of pest.

[vegnut]

Me too. But mines with Butternut squash. A nice 2" squash and a large hansome yellow flower, but no male flowers anywhere.

[Flummery]

Sometimes this is just weather conditions I think. It's not been a good year for the squash and pumpkin family so far. A little bit of sun wouldn't do us any harm (it would roll the old chariot along! - anyone remember that?)

[Hazel at the Hill]

I've found that the fuit on the Prize Pumpkin at the Hill see to fall off at golf ball size if not pollinated - this the the best one sitting on a brick....

Photos taken on the 10th, and the 19th of this month ....hoping for a monster!

[NSB]

On my pumkins I only have male flowers- any suggestions

[Flummery]

Wait a bit. The male flowers are first and the female will follow. Panic not!

[Snadger]

We're having a pumpkin competiion at my allotments. Mine is the only one that hasn't set pumpkins but I have supplied all the male flowers to fertilise the others!
Some of them are the size of baseballs already, and mine are just starting to produce female flowers.
My pumpkin thats growing outdoors has damped off! The one I have in the corner of the geenhouse I have trained it out of the window. I seem to have a pumpkin set now the trouble is it's five foot to the ground, which is going to pose a problem if it grows big! I'll need Dolly Partons bra to support it!

I wonder if I can bargain for a prize for the smallest pumpkin!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Oh you have let me down, Snadger - I was looking to you for advice for the Prize Pumpkin at the Hill, and it looks like I'm further on than you are...

[Snadger]

Oh you have let me down, Snadger - I was looking to you for advice for the Prize Pumpkin at the Hill, and it looks like I'm further on than you are...

Sorry Hazel, my Atlantic Giant hasn't lived up to its name........yet?