Will I have pumpkins for Samhain???

[morgane_snowy_owl]

Hi guys,

Maybe some of you are used to grow a pumpkin or two for Samhain... we planted pumpkins for the first time this year. Today, we have a lot of flowers, but nothing else. Will they have enough time to grow to a good size by the end of October? Should we see a fruit protruding from the flowers yet?

Thanks for your help!

Morgane

[Jake]

Hi Morgane!

Growing pumpkins is such fun! If those are the first flowers, then they're probably all male. The male flowers appear first so that enough bees are visiting to pollinate the plant by the time the female flowers bloom. The females usually appear a week or so later and you'll see the tiny fruit not protruding from the female flower but rather underneath it. Here's a picture of a female pumpkin flower: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/senior/v ... female.jpg

If pollination is successful, after the flower drops off the fruit will start to grow. You may have to pollinate by hand if the bees don't show up.

As to whether or not you'll have pumpkins by Samhain, that depends on a lot of factors. Most varieties are harvested about 100 days after planting. If your first flowers appeared today I'm guessing you planted about 6-8 weeks ago, yes? When does the first frost usually happen in your area? If the pumpkins are ripe by then a light frost might kill the vine and then you can harvest the fruit. But a harder frost will kill the fruit so they have to be harvested before then.

Best of luck!

[morgane_snowy_owl]

Thanks Jake! As we say here, I'll be a little less stupid when I go to bed tonight!

Thanks for the pic, I'll check the garden when I'm home tonight. We don't have much bees around here... we had other kinds of flying insects though, so they might have pollinated the flowers. But just in case, can you tell me:

1. How you suggest we pollinate by hand
2. Is there any way to tell that a flower has been pollinated before it's too late?

Thanks for your help!