I am in the same boat. So, if you continually trim most of the fruits off of the
vine save a few, those few should logically produce? I assume that trimming the
vine wouldn't help because the stem and leaves are what produce the energy for the
fruits.

-AD

Pat Kiewicz wrote:

Eigenvector said:

I have several thriving pumpkin vines. No mildew or other disease or
parasite problems. I have one fruit that has formed which you can
practically watch as it grows. I have many female flowers which begin
to form (with the fruit at the base) but before the flower actually
opens, the fruit shrivels up and dies. I have read materials which say
that a lack of pollination is the cause for withered fruit and that
manual pollination would be the work-around. However, does this apply
if the female flowers haven't even opened yet? How does one pollinate a
flower if it isn't ready yet? Also, could there be another issue which
is causing the withering fruit?

The vines will abort the female flowers if they are unable to support the fruit.
This will happen before the flowers even open. Usually this happens after
some number of fruit are set on the vines, which depends on the species
and variety (and particularly, size) of the fruit. Mini-pumpkins can set dozens
of fruit per vine. The big jack o'lanterns, will set maybe 1 or 2.

Not quite enough sun, not quite enough of some nutrient (or nutrients way out
of balance) and you can get healthy looking leaves and vines but no fruit.

Sometimes I get vines starting in my compost pile which look fairly healthy
but there is too much shade there for them to grow any fruit.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)