I am growing pumpkins for the first time and am wondering about this pollination thing. Are their self pollinating varieties? I have Knucklehead, Invincible, and one I can't remember at the moment. I'll have to check on marshalls web site again. Is manual pollination difficult? Guess you need a cotton bud or similar.Any advice would be welcomed.
Anything that encourages insects will help, plotskier. I have lavender planted nearby the pumpkin patch.
Hand pollination is easy. Keep an eye out for female flowers, they're the ones attached to the ends of the miniature fruit. It usually takes 3 or so days from when they very first appear until the flower is ready to open.
Hand pollination is best done early in the morning as soon as the female flower has opened. You can use something like a cotton bud to transfer pollen from the stamen to the stigma. It's best also to use pollen from a freshly-opened male flower. Very gently brush the pollen onto the stigma and, even more gently, inside the stigma. Care is the key. If you damage the stigma it's curtains for the flower.
I prefer to nip out a male stamen and brush it directly onto and inside the stigma. Less chance of damaging the stigma and the transfer is direct.
Typically, you'll get a lot more male flowers than females, particularly early on, and the wait for females can be very frustrating.
Grow borage by your pumpkin plants... attracts lots of bees.
I usually make a big hole where I want to plant each pumpking, around march, and chuck in it all the lush weeds I pull from around the garden. I add several handfuls of wood ashes and then cover the hoole again. I don't add much manure in the pumkins place, just the normal amount I spread over the whole KG ground each year.
When I plant out the pumpking in mid May (probably later for you in the UK) I add one handful of hoof and horn per plant.
Nothing else at all. No fertilizers, not trouble for lack of bees. Remember the borage.
I don't know why I always mispell pumpkin as pumpking... the king of pumpkins? lol
Last summer one of my plants "escaped" over the fence and several of the very big pumpkins grew up in secret in the forest on the other side... they were only discovered when I cleared the plants in october. Very funny.
Thanks above. The ground around my shed was full of weeds until yesterday when I did a mass clear out. But I noticed three giant borage plants! So guess where they are going - next to the pumpkins. My pumpkins are just young plants at the mo but are growing fast! I'll look out for the flowers and try that pollination with a male stamen idea. Not much rain up here in the North , not for about two months so have had to use the site's water taps to fill the blue barrels - the strawbs are amazing - Vibrant , Marshmello, and Malwina - the first has ripened already, the latter two are well on their way. - good year for fruit. Veg is v.poor.
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Good to know! thanks
I am growing pumpkins for the first time and am wondering about this pollination thing. Are their self pollinating varieties? I have Knucklehead, Invincible, and one I can't remember at the moment. I'll have to check on marshalls web site again. Is manual pollination difficult? Guess you need a cotton bud or similar.Any advice would be welcomed.
Would growing a wild flower bee friendly mix next door to the pumpkins help in pollination?
Anything that encourages insects will help, plotskier. I have lavender planted nearby the pumpkin patch.
Hand pollination is easy. Keep an eye out for female flowers, they're the ones attached to the ends of the miniature fruit. It usually takes 3 or so days from when they very first appear until the flower is ready to open.
Hand pollination is best done early in the morning as soon as the female flower has opened. You can use something like a cotton bud to transfer pollen from the stamen to the stigma. It's best also to use pollen from a freshly-opened male flower. Very gently brush the pollen onto the stigma and, even more gently, inside the stigma. Care is the key. If you damage the stigma it's curtains for the flower.
I prefer to nip out a male stamen and brush it directly onto and inside the stigma. Less chance of damaging the stigma and the transfer is direct.
Typically, you'll get a lot more male flowers than females, particularly early on, and the wait for females can be very frustrating.
Grow borage by your pumpkin plants... attracts lots of bees.
I usually make a big hole where I want to plant each pumpking, around march, and chuck in it all the lush weeds I pull from around the garden. I add several handfuls of wood ashes and then cover the hoole again. I don't add much manure in the pumkins place, just the normal amount I spread over the whole KG ground each year.
When I plant out the pumpking in mid May (probably later for you in the UK) I add one handful of hoof and horn per plant.
Nothing else at all. No fertilizers, not trouble for lack of bees. Remember the borage.
My results:
I don't know why I always mispell pumpkin as pumpking... the king of pumpkins? lol
Last summer one of my plants "escaped" over the fence and several of the very big pumpkins grew up in secret in the forest on the other side... they were only discovered when I cleared the plants in october. Very funny.
Thanks above. The ground around my shed was full of weeds until yesterday when I did a mass clear out. But I noticed three giant borage plants! So guess where they are going - next to the pumpkins. My pumpkins are just young plants at the mo but are growing fast! I'll look out for the flowers and try that pollination with a male stamen idea. Not much rain up here in the North , not for about two months so have had to use the site's water taps to fill the blue barrels - the strawbs are amazing - Vibrant , Marshmello, and Malwina - the first has ripened already, the latter two are well on their way. - good year for fruit. Veg is v.poor.