[pots]

hiya
just wondered if anyone can HELP me please, i have grown some pumpkins this year and they have been growing since march they are outside and growing lovely but there are still no flowers on most of them and 2 have got flowers but no pumpkins starting to grow i thought they could be harvested in sept but i still have none, should i cut the growing point out? can anyone please tell me what im doing wrong. thanks lisa

[Trillium]

Definitely cut off the growing ends, its too late to keep trying. Sounds like you got male flowering pumpkins and no female flowering ones. Female plant flowers will resemble courgettes and cukes - there'll be a small bulby bit just below the flower. The male plants are strictly showy flowers and no substance    These sort of odds happen from time to time; for some of us it happens a number of times 

[pots]

ok thats great thank you for filling me in, looks like i got all male

[sunshineband]

I've got a butternut like that 

[mumofstig]

I keep finding all males, then a few days of all females, so when i do manage to find one of each i hand pollinate to make sure i get at least a few pumpkins

[scotty]

the males and females on my plants are opening at very different times. standing over daily, preparing to hand pollinate but alas they are determined that this will not happen!

[Callie]

Hi Pots, in the world of forums I must live practically next door to you

Bought 1 pumpkin plant and 1 courgette plant from Wyevale from the children range (you know easy, hardy etc for little hands) for my granddaughter.  The courgette plant turned out to be melons (as i posted elsewhere on the forum) we have 6-7 of these on the pumpkin plant.... keeping our fingers crossed 

[sunshineband]

They could be round courgettes, on that other plant Callie.  I'm not sure that melons could be that large outdoors right now  Pumpkins look good 

Be interested to find out, when you eat them 

[DD.]

I doubted it too!

[Callie]

Don't doubt 

we hadn't a clue either, I asked mum (who is a veteran gardener) to take a look, she said melon, we didn't believe her so we cut one open, it looks like melon, it tastes like melon... what more can I say.........I'll try and remember to take a photo when we cut the next one

 perhaps the courgette heard me say I don't like courgette and decided to disguise itself 

[aelf]

 so we cut one open, it looks like melon, it tastes like melon...

well, if it looks and tastes like melon, I guess....... 

[diggerjoe]

Mine are not flowering either Pots they are  rampant through the allotment  big leaves thick stems they look a picture of health but only one pumkin on 5 plants I am growing the one the italians make marmalade out of so guess its lack of warm sunshine - dissapointing as they are such good plants.

[Trillium]

That's the worst part about squashes, melons, courgettes and cukes - they're really healthy even though they're producing nothing. Had to replant my cukes 3X this spring as earwigs kept eating the new sprouts. The last planting I simply filled a row with seed. finally have 6 male plants and 1 female plant out of the lot growing.  The cukes are coming but not large enough yet to pick. I'd yank out the drones but its so crowded in that spot that I can barely get in there let alone trace back the vines.