Why do ALL my pumpkins die every year!?

[sparkles2307]

I have moved the graden, added compost, weeded, watered, not watered, thinned, hilled, rowed, and tried different varieites each year and STILL my pumpkins all fall off the vine because they dont get pollinated! WHY is this such an issue? Obviously SOME kind of pumpkin can pollinate itself or thered be no pumpkins in this world...

 

[bigredfeather]

You need some bees. Might sound funny, but it's most likely the reason. Bees are the number one pollinator for pumpkins, squash, ect.. I have some relatives who raise pumpkins and had the same problem. This year they bought 3 hives of bees. They are hoping it fixes the problem. It has been reported in the media that the bee population has decreased dramitcaly. Experts have not come up with a good reason why this is happening.

It's obviously not economical for gardeners to buy bees, but you may try planting bee attracting flowers around your pumpkins to bring the bees in the area.

 

[sparkles2307]

We have bees out the butt though. It seems like the female flowers open after the male flowers alreay died. Trust me, bees arent the issue, I have apple trees next to the garden and have noticed that even now with no more blossoms the trees still have bees on/around them. And theres clover all the way around the garden with bees in it, so they know the pumpkin flowers are there...maybe our bee-keeper freinds would set some hives at our place to up the ante a bit but I dont see the need...

 

[patandchickens]

If this is just a personal-sized punkin patch (as opposed to agricultural-scale) it is very easy to hand-pollinate them. Just check every coupla days for new flowers opening, pick one or two of the male flowers, and walk around dabbing them on the newly opened female flowers. It's not like pumpkins set *that* many flowers

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[sparkles2307]

Pat, when do the females open tho? Mine are always all bunched up tight...do I have to do this while I am doing my hair and geting kids ready before we leave the house at 6:45 for the day?

 

[lesa]

I have had issues with pumpkins not growing in the past. This year everything is different. You know, I was just thinking I got lucky- but this happens to be my first year as a beekeeper. Interesting. My pumpkin plants are huge and covered in pumpkins. I also added a small amount of chicken poop in the spring. I planted giant and mini pumpkins. I honestly can't count how many mini's I have. Last year (before bees) my minis never got any fruit and I got one large pumpkin, that split before it was basketball size. Not a perfectly controlled study- but interesting nonetheless.

 

[applefalls]

What do the vines of your plants look like? Often times, the vines are what cause failure with pumpkins, we've found. Do your plants live all summer, just without any fruit? Or are they dying off around this time?

 

[sparkles2307]

Well the vines grow really beautifully and very fast and are covered in female flowers, loads of them. They stay green and bushy till about the end of August.

 

[vfem]

I wish I had advice but I do not, I am sorry. I was going to rip out my watermelon vine (since I just picked the last melon in garden #1) and I was going to put in pumpkins. I am hoping to learn something from here before I do this!

 

[sparkles2307]

I am going to grit my teeth and go out at 6:00 this saturday morning and hand pollinate Then, I shall sit on the porch with my coffee and read New Moon while I look at my garden.