[mickeyboy]

Im having a bad year, first bitter carrots and now my pumpkins seem to be rotting or something. I have never grown these before but wanted to try and grow some big ones for november. I planted in half a barrel and the plant is huge with 2 long creepers with quite a few pumpkin on. I have reduced the number of trails to 2, but the ones nearer the end of the plant are going soggy and appear to be rotting.

Is this usual? Am i doing something wrong? They had plenty of manure added and are fed weekly.

Cheers Peeps

Mickeyboy

[JayG]

How large are the ones which have started rotting mickeyboy?

If they only grew a little bit after the flower fell off and then started rotting they were probably not pollinated.

If they were pollinated and reached a decent size before starting to rot it can only be soft rot caused by prolonged contact with wet soil (pretty unlikely just lately I would have thought!)

Putting a slate or similar underneath the fruits to keep them off the ground can help, also removing the dead remains of the flower after fruit set takes away the risk of rot spreading from there.

[mickeyboy]

ahhh that may be the answer then, thanks..... They are only about the size of a golfball, then the flower rots and then the pumpkin. Have plenty of what i believe to be male flowers just not enough bees i suppose??

[JayG]

Probably; you can do the bees' job with a small paintbrush if you can get to them during the day when the flowers are open!

[mickeyboy]

right spent today waiting for flowers to open, which they did and i then transfered the pollen from the male to the female(felt like god for a min,lol). So hopefully i will have at least 3 pumpkins!!
Im also seriously considering setting uo a bee hive.....