Why won't my pumpkins produce?
Question:In the past two years, we have tried to grow some pumpkins. We have had great vines, but everytime they flower, they just wilt with no fruit. They look like they try to form some fruit, but it doesn't last. Is there something else we should try? I have put an all purpose fertilizer in the soil and then water them every couple of days, if there isn't any rain.
Answers:
Poor pollination affects fruit set. Too much nitrogen can also delay the setting of fruit on the vine. A few other factors can affect fruit set. The most common is a mid summer heat wave. High day and night time temperatures will cause plant stress. The tiny pollinated fruit may abort as a result. A heat wave can also deter bees from their job, making hand pollination more important.
Male and female flowers are found on the same plant. The male flowers will appear well before the female flowers and also in far greater numbers. In periods of hot weather the male flowers are more numerous. When they get a cool spell, the female population will catch up.
Male flowers are short lived. They will open up before dawn and will close completely by mid-morning. The male flowers possess both pollen and nectar, the female flowers only nectar. If the plants are watered from overhead early in the day, that may prevent all further pollination for that day. Everything gets washed off of the short-lived male flowers. Replacement flowers do not open then until the following morning.
So don't water in the morning if you want to give your plants optimum opportunity to pollinate. Having a lot of rain early in the day doesn't help pollination either, & bees are not active when it rains.
You can pollinate by hand .Take the male flower and gently rub its pollen onto the stigma sections in the center of the female flower. Pollination will be more successful if several male flowers are used to pollinate one female flower.
This site on pumpkin pollination is great:
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/howto/pollen.
Good luck! Hope this helps.
you need to pick one of the flowers to be the one you want to grow and remove the rest so that all the nutrients go to one paticular plant. I would also do some online investigating into feeding your pumkin whole milk and/or beer.
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