Mary's pumpkin vine has been flourishing since we planted it this spring but it has not had any pumpkins on it. It had lots of blooms but they were all male flowers. Pumpkin vines produce both male and female flowers. The female flowers have the fruit and the male pollen must be put on the female flowers to produce the pumpkins. That is the bees job but you can get some pollen from the male flower with a Q-tip and put it on the female flower just to make sure it gets germinated. Those are interesting facts that I learned from my sister who is an avid vegetable gardener.
This morning when I was taking Mac out to go potty, I spied this lovely flower. The ants were all over it drawn by the nectar is was producing and ...
Sure enough there at the base was a baby pumpkin!
So I got the pollen from a male flower and put it on the female flower just in case. We will see what happens!
2 comments:
I hope you get a pumpkin Elena. We have lots of volunteer gourds this year and we have a pumpkin. I forgot to intentionally plant them this year. The birthday looks like fun too. Kathi
Wow, this was an interesting post. It didn't have a clue about the male and female flowers. I hope you get a huge pumpkin this fall.
Blessings!
Post a Comment