Sorry I don't have a pumpkin to show you, but these will have to work. This is a female watermelon flower. The flower is shrivled up, but you get the idea. That baby watermelon behind the flower shows it is female.
[img]https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb9/BP991/garden%202010/003.jpg[/img]
Another female watermelon flower
[img]https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb9/BP991/garden%202010/015.jpg[/img]
Female cantaloupe flower.
[img]https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb9/BP991/garden%202010/008-3.jpg[/img]
A male flower will look the same, but no baby fruit behind it.
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cherishedtiger
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- Posts: 339
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:10 pm
- Location: Sacramento, California
So... almost seemingly overnight my 2 have exploded! I have over a dozen flowers, both male/female. Vines going everywhere! This 100+ degree heat has made them grow like crazy! Very few bees so I will be hand pollinating. I use the Q-Tip method, get pollen from the male flower on the Q-Tip and then brush that around the female flower, worked for my squash last year... sorta...
Cant wait to see how many pumpkins I get from my two plants, cant recall what variety they are off the top of my head...
Cant wait to see how many pumpkins I get from my two plants, cant recall what variety they are off the top of my head...
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TheWaterbug
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- Posts: 1082
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
- Location: Los Angeles
We're still only in the low/mid 80s, but I'm out of town for a week, so I'm sure I'm in for a big apparent change when I get back. Stuff seems to grow faster when I'm not looking anywayscherishedtiger wrote:So... almost seemingly overnight my 2 have exploded! I have over a dozen flowers, both male/female. Vines going everywhere! This 100+ degree heat has made them grow like crazy!
The day before I left (July 4th) I had some leaves that were the size of my hand. I'm hoping for dinner plates by the time I get back.
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TheWaterbug
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- Posts: 1082
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
- Location: Los Angeles
Here's the dinner plate!
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PumpkinLeaf071011.jpg[/img]
There's a quarter on the leaf, for scale.
I have a few vines that are ~3 feet long now:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PumpkinVine071011.jpg[/img]
and some of them have a few male flowers. So I think we're in the "rapid vining" stage now, and they should probably grow very fast. The same quarter is on the rightmost leaf, for scale.
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PumpkinLeaf071011.jpg[/img]
There's a quarter on the leaf, for scale.
I have a few vines that are ~3 feet long now:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PumpkinVine071011.jpg[/img]
and some of them have a few male flowers. So I think we're in the "rapid vining" stage now, and they should probably grow very fast. The same quarter is on the rightmost leaf, for scale.
Mine is starting to flower, too ! All male, but I hope females aren't far behind. The plant on the upper left is also a pumpkin, and also flowering, but it's shorter. The one on the right was a leggy seedling I thought had no chance, and the one on the left was the one I thought was going to be strongest! No idea why they turned out the way they did-the one on the right just hit 9 feet long, but they certainly are strange!
I *REALLY* need to figure out what to do with it when It climbs up and over my garden fence... there has got to be some way to protect the vines from the chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits in my yard!
[img]https://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/Liskarialeman/Pumpkin-2.jpg[/img]
I *REALLY* need to figure out what to do with it when It climbs up and over my garden fence... there has got to be some way to protect the vines from the chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits in my yard!
[img]https://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/Liskarialeman/Pumpkin-2.jpg[/img]
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TheWaterbug
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- Posts: 1082
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
- Location: Los Angeles
IME the critters don't bother the vines too much, especially once they reach that size, but they definitely go after the fruit. I had squirrels eating my female flowers as soon as they bloomed; most of them never had a chance to get pollinated before they got chomped:SPierce wrote:I *REALLY* need to figure out what to do with it when It climbs up and over my garden fence... there has got to be some way to protect the vines from the chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits in my yard!
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/DriedBlood2.jpg[/img]
See the red circle? There it isn't! That brown stuff on the ground is dried blood, sold as a foolproof critter deterrent.
If the pumpkins actually got pollinated, here's what happened soon afterward:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PumpkinCarnage.jpg[/img]
As it turns out, the only solution that actually worked was a physical barrier, like these:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/AntiSquirrelCages.jpg[/img]
I put one over each female flower and secured it with 3-4 plastic stakes. Then, as the pumpkin grew I replaced the smaller cages with larger ones until harvest time.
I'm using the hideously expensive plastic chicken wire, because my kid helps me make it and install it, and I didn't want him messing with sharp metal, but regular chicken wire would work fine.
I think I only lost 1 out of the ~60 or so pumpkins that I protected this way. The critters actually pulled up the cage and went in for the kill! But only once.
Mine doing OK I think. 2nd year for trying pumpkins. Last year I grew a nice one for a jack-o-lantern, tis year 2 types, one med size & one small sweet for pies. Getting pumpkins forming so good for my area I think.
I have to hand pollenate, not may bees here.
[img]https://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj269/bogydave/pumpk7-10-11.jpg[/img]
I have to hand pollenate, not may bees here.
[img]https://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj269/bogydave/pumpk7-10-11.jpg[/img]