GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

27-08-2005, 04:51 AM

wrote:
Hi,

Well we finally have a little pumpkin starting. It's about the size of
a plum but seems very healthy. I noticed that this one was bigger than
the other females that failed to start even before the flower opened.
Seems like a lot of female flowers are starting to show up now.

Still plenty of growing time left so hopefully we will get a nice
pumpkin.

How many pumpkins should I allow to grow on one vine? I don't care
about growing a giant but I would like a good size pumpkin we can use
for halloween.

If I start to remove some of the new female flowers when should that be
done? Should I wait until they flower or just remove them as soon as I
see them?

Thanks for any tips.

Steve

If you are going to remove flowers, you might as well do it as soon as
you see them forming. Don't be in a rush to start doing that though.
I've seen pumpkins get as large as 5 or 6 inches across and then
collapse and rot. I suppose this happens when the flower barely gets
pollinated and isn't forming enough seeds to be worth continuing on. It
also seems to happen after a vine has formed some pumpkins and doesn't
have the strength to complete more.
How many pumpkins to leave depends on the plant. My smaller ones can
form several on one vine. The ones that produce big pumpkins usually set
one or two and any that follow seem to abort. (I never remove flowers. I
let the plant decide. If I was trying for the largest possible pumpkins,
I would consider removing them.)

Steve (the one from the Adirondacks)