[fletch]

I have 4 plants, unfortunately I can't remember the variety, they may be Jack 'o' Lantern. They are (finally) taking off and have lots of fruits on each plant. Some of the fruits seem to be ok, but some are rotting where the stem meets the fruit. I've pulled them off and binned them.
Any ideas what could be causing this? Could it be the recent wet weather? They only seemed to get going once the weather improved. The rotting fruits are approx golf ball size.
I intend to only keep 2 fruits per plant as I want them for lanterns, not eating.

Fletch

[Sadgit]

mine are doing the same thing.... currently got 1 large pumpkin on each of my 2 plants.

[welsh boyo]

hi forgive me if im stating the obvious but are you pollanating them??
I`m only asking as we had the same sort of problem last year.
the plant we have has both male and female flowers on it, the female has a small golfball size pumpkin on it while the male doesnt.
we were told to take the male flower,strip the petals of it leaving the stem then place this inside the open female and wiggle it about.
it worked for us we know have 2 plants with pumpkins about the size of a small football.
hope this helps

[starmoonlilly]

I havent grown pumpkins (not enough space) but I thought the bees would have done the pollinating?

Sorry if thats a daft statement, I would never thought to pollinate either :?

[purplebat]

hi forgive me if im stating the obvious but are you pollanating them??
I`m only asking as we had the same sort of problem last year.
the plant we have has both male and female flowers on it, the female has a small golfball size pumpkin on it while the male doesnt.
we were told to take the male flower,strip the petals of it leaving the stem then place this inside the open female and wiggle it about.
it worked for us we know have 2 plants with pumpkins about the size of a small football.
hope this helps

I haven't pollinated mine and mine are pretty big now, so I guess you don't need to; if you only have male flowers though and no females I think you're meant to pull off the male ones (if you've got fruit you don't need to do this)

[brucesgirl]

My husband has named our pumpkin plant Gwen!! Don't know why. Anyway, we didn't pollinate ours and we have four fruits that are now the size of tennis balls. The earlier fruits just rotted off, so I guess they weren't pollinated?

[wellingtons]

... and have grown various types in the last three years.

Rotting off is most likely because they haven't been pollinated and sometimes they just rot off for the sheer hell of it it seems to me.

I think we're all in a similar boat, pumpkins need warmth and sunshine as well as water to make a good go of it, and we've finally got the warm sunny weather.  There's still plenty of time for your pumpkins to get pollinated and make a decent size.

Once the required number of fruit have set, make sure you water and feed regularly and you'll be rewarded with pumpkins ... whatever you choose to do with them.

Bizarrely I have one Jack of All Trades all orange and ready to pick, but only about the size of an ogen melon! ...  :?   The others are still green and growing away nicely.

[Babycat]

Hey all - I planted 4 plant out and they have taken over nearly a whole rod now.  I have 4 large pumpkins growing and lots of the little rotty ones as well.

Do I need to cut back the rotting ones or just leave them and also, do I need to trim the rest of the plant in anyway as it seems to be running away a bit?

Do you rest yours on anything - by coincidence mine are resting on fleece at the moment...

Ta

Gina

[muntjac]

clear any rotting stuff away so it doesnt spread