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Omaha, NE (N41-15-42 )

The first blossom on one of my plants this year was a female, at about 12-14"(inches) from stump. never seen first blossom be a female before and was curious how frequent of an occurrence this is.

6/16/2005 6:00:18 PM

Eveleth MN

I've got an early one on the way also, about 3 feet out on my 171 and its ahead of all the males so far.

6/16/2005 7:34:01 PM

Ohio

Matt, I had the first 4 flowers on my *874 dieff all female flowers when it was only 2 feet tall and not even vining out yet,No males at all on the plant at the time. Kinda Weird huh?

Alun that is on this site is growing the 1446 Eaton, its first flowers was female also.

Wonder whats up with the females starting early like that?

Brooks

6/16/2005 7:34:56 PM

Liverpool , England

Go look at my diary...females....and they are within 2" of the seed leaves.

6/16/2005 7:38:14 PM

Montoursville, PA

On mine too! Boy sure hope they don't quit coming when I need them in another fifteen days. :) Am seeing this for the first time in this area too........however we are all relatively new growers. Bet some of the old timers have seen it along their years of experience.

I guessed...only guessed that due to our late starts many, of our plants, were at least moderately pot bound. Stress may trigger the urge, to reproduce. What do you think?

6/16/2005 7:59:20 PM

jeez i thought this was actually going to be about sex. what a disappointment. but in all my experiences, in pumpkins and otherwise, the male is ready to go before the female.
;-)

6/16/2005 9:33:27 PM

[email protected]

All males here so far.

6/16/2005 9:51:36 PM

Western NY

i noticed one early felamle in the growing tip which should hit at about 8 feet, but the rest show nothing yet.

6/16/2005 10:03:20 PM

Olympia, Wa

I have plucked 6 females so far this yr....and have another 4 that will need to be eliminated before it is time to pollinate. My males are growing but none have opened yet....which is good!...want them to wait for another couple wks.
but yeagh...had to pick 3 just tonite, on the 770 ...one would have been a nice one...big and fat and a nice stem to go with it.....I am starting to have the patients of my 5yr. old(who just graduated from kindergarten..btw).....is it time yet?...is it time yet?..why dont we just pollinate it..lol
I picked the pumpkins tonite, gave them to him and he was gonna keep them for another 2 wks so he could pollinate them when the time comes......SILLLY KID!

6/17/2005 12:32:13 AM

Austria

The topic reminds me of our english lessons at the age of about 16. There was this very conservative and quite old english teacher trying to "sell" all those pen pal requests to us going like "Hi, I`m Stacy from London. I`m 15, have two pets, I would like to have a girl as pen pal ..." or "Hi I`m Steve from Oregon and would like to have a boy as pen pal, my hobbies are ...". Well, none of us was interested at all and all were in danger to immediatly fall asleep UNTILL this happened: The teacher read about the 10th request going like: Hi, I`m April from Nashville, Tennesse, I`m 16, my hobbies are ... my pen pal should be interested in ... Sex is no problem!" After looking at each other in disbelief for five seconds or so, if he really could have said that, all the boys started raising their hands, fingers snipping, crying "Me, Me!" ... When all was silent again the teacher had no other way than explaining in german language, that this just meant, she wouln`t care, if her pen pal was male or female ... What a blast we had!

6/17/2005 4:56:31 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

This will be sort of a let down after Steel's post, but... No plants have produced a female flower first, but I have had numerous male flowers very early on my plants this year. I now have a 529 Brinkley that I could cover approx. 20 male flowers with a dinner plate within 12" of the stump. I am thinking it must be soil related as all 5 of my plants have had early male flowers. Seems to be no adverse affects. Peace Wayne

6/17/2005 6:51:42 AM

Montoursville, PA

I pinch off all flowers until about right now. Wishing to pollinate the first week in July or shortly thereafer the new flowers will be permitted to make. My Dumb Dutch awareness indicates that early flowers are pretty but they do take energy to make.

6/17/2005 10:37:31 AM

I don't pinch off flowers. I don't pass up an opportunity to pollinate on the main. A fair share of big pumpkins first on the main were pollinated near 10ft. in NE before July last year. There is no guarrantee the next one will set. I'll take the option of an "early" set that can grow during the best weather of the summer and not have to hope for good weather in September any day. As to the original question, so far on my plants my first flowers to open this year were males except for the 846 Jutras.

6/17/2005 1:23:53 PM

Butler, Ohio

Mostly all males on my plants. Had a female at about 8 ft on my 800 Dieff. and another one now at 13 ft. Same thing on my 338 Rahe one female at 6 1/2 ft and another one at 14 ft. Gettin close to time!! Females are really few and far between here right now.

6/18/2005 2:22:33 PM