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Long Island

Hey everyone. As of this morning I have 3 pumpkins set with one more on the way. #1 was pollinated Wed. Aug 1st. #2 and #3 were done on Fri. Aug 3rd. Anyway...I have hand pollinated them so far. If I dont have any males ready I just take a male that looks as if it is ready to open the next day. Is that ok? Because I have done that on three so far and they have all set. My next question is..when is the time to put something under the pumpkin? Mine is about 6" around now. (I DO NOT have atlantic giants I have conn. Field and are just growing for fun). How do you get a perfectly round pumpkin? Thanks for all your help.

8/4/2001 9:32:10 AM

Omaha, NE

The infamous words of "growing just for fun". I remember saying that a few weeks ago, although mine are still not for a contest, and are just for Halloween. I am now obsessed with my little patch, and watching the growth on the pumpkins on a daily basis.

I have conn. field and Big max. I have two Conn. Fields on two different plants, one the bees pollinated on approx. July 18-20 (somewhere in there), and is now 22", growing very slow and has one orange spot on it. The second one, I pollinated last Sat. (7/28) with males from the big max, and is taking off (18" this morning). By the way I am measuring from the stem around the blossom end, and back to the stem. I hopefully will have a big max female open tomorrow to pollinate.

I can't say if it's good or bad to pollinate with a male not quite open, I will leave that to the experts on this site. I will say that it is not good, to force open the female to early, so if that is all you had for males, then you had no choice. You will know for sure if the pollination is set, if they start growing quick. Check out the photo gallery and you can see how quick they have grown from pollination to a few days later.... Karen

8/4/2001 11:09:17 AM

Omaha, NE

If anyone out there as any ideas/suggestions not so much for perfectly round but when/how to set them up on their blossom end, so as not to have a flat side, I need to know as well.

8/4/2001 11:11:08 AM

Long Island,New York

You probably wont know if the pumpkin has "set" for a week or two. Experts tell me pollination can take upwards of 6 days to be complete.
Its also a fair bet that the day early pollen may not work.If there was pollen on the stamen..all fluffy and ready...then maybe.
I dont know about regular pumpkins but the blossom end is the weakest spot and the least favorable position to have the fruit sitting on......G

8/4/2001 1:47:14 PM