From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Deepwoods

Ideas on why female flowers and baby pumpkins aren't maturing? They get quarter sized and shrivel up and turn brown. All else looks great. Strong plants but all could be wasted, any suggestions will help,,,,,,,

7/3/2013 6:13:20 PM

Fresno, CA

That is a common problem. It's usually because the fruit/flower aborts when pollination isn't successful.

7/4/2013 2:08:53 AM

Fresno, CA

First way to address this is to hand-pollinate the flowers early on the first morning they open. You can do this by pulling a stamen from a male flower and rubbing it around in the female flower to deposit pollen. If you're already doing that you can also try to cool the pollinated flower for a day or two. Some growers do this to increase chance of the fruit developing. You put a small styrofoam cooler upside down over the female flower with a frozen water bottle in to cool down the air around fruit. Be careful not to damage vine or flower.

7/4/2013 2:24:49 AM

Piqua, Ohio

maybe too much nitrogen, I quit using it 2 weeks before and after pollination.

7/4/2013 10:44:26 AM

Fresno, CA

Pumpkin Shepherd posted this slide show on pollination..
http://eringiantpumpkingrowers.weebly.com/pollination-basics.html

7/8/2013 10:15:12 AM