Try it, but I have found that if there aren't enough pollinators (how many
is enough?) they will still shrivel and drop off. You might try spraying
them with sugar water and see if flies, ants, or butterflies will come to
them. There are enough other plants growing there that require pollinators,
and I don't see why pumpkins wouldn't work. If you could figure a way to
draw the black flies to them you might have invented something (we used to
live at Goose Bay).

Dwayne

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hope people aren't bored with pumpkins, I see someone else has already
posted about them today...

I have recently moved to Newfoundland, Canada and after growing
pumpkins for the last two years in the UK I thought I would try here,
and hopefully have some ready for the kids for Halloween. The plants
are growing well and look healthy and are producing lots of male and
female flowers but the embryo pumpkins at the bases of the female
flowers never develop into anything, they just shrivel up and fall off
when the flower dies.

I have been Googling tonight and I think I have found the answer:
pumpkins are usually pollinated by bees, there are very few bees in
Newfoundland so my plants are probably not being pollinated. So I
guess I'll have to get a small paintbrush and pollinate them by hand.
Is this likely the right diagnosis, and has anyone else had this
problem when growing pumpkins in out-of-the-way places?

Peter