"Luke" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I planted some butternut pumpinks about two months ago and the vines are
now
doing extremely well, with an enormous amount of flowers. I have noticed
now
that some of the flowers have started to form the pumpkin itself and was
wondering if i need to actually nip the flower off or leave it there. I
have
had conflicting views on how to grow them so any advice would be
appreciated.


Ok with Pumpkins there are two types of flowers ... Male and Female... the
female are the ones that bare fruit (the Pumpkin)

They are easy to tell apart..
1. the Female will normally have a bulge at the base of the flower,
2. The male is normally on a longer stem,
3. If you look into the flower the stamen (sp?) on the male plant will be
long and thin, whilst on the female it will be segmented..

what you can do is wait of the bees to pollinate the female flowers from the
male .. or pick a male flower in the morning when it is open, remove the
petal to expose the stamen, then using that pollinate the female flower by
wiping it's stamen with the male one...

(Kinda sounds like sex !!)

Make sure the flowers are full open before you do this as you can damage the
female flower.
And best to be done in the morning so the male flower is full of pollen..
(the yellowy dust around the stamen)..

Hope this helps