Do you know what type of pumpkin you planted? Like 'big max' or 'connecticut field' or 'Autumn gold' or many others. I ask because if I know what you have I can tell you what other squash you can use to pollinate the female flowers. If you don't know what pumpkin you have just try using the male flowers from other summer or winter squash that you may be growing in case you find youself in a situation where you have no male pumpkin flowers to pollinate your female pumpkin. Also how long are your vines? At lot of times my vines need to be 10+ feet before I get any pumpkins. And you should still have time to get pupmkins if you are in the northern part of GA and you definitely still have time if you are in the southern part of GA.

Here are a couple things you can do to make your plants healthier. First you can try to keep the vine in contact with the soil since you will get more roots at the base of each leaf. If you can't lower the vine to the soil and it is only a couple inches off the ground you can mound soil under the vine, but you don't need to completely cover the vine. Second pumpkins are heavy feeders and you should be fertilizing them often. I encourage you to find a fertilizer that works for you but some people use 5-10-5 or sidedress the vines with compost or water with "compost tea" every three weeks.

Thanks...
I don't have any other squash/pumpkin, etc anywhere to utilize as a fertilizing male flower. However, my problem seems to be that I don't have any females that are flowering. I'm actually not sure what variety I planted.. I'll try to find the see packet. The vines are presently 6-8 feet in length, so based on your comment maybe that is the problem... Hope I have enough time...

Thanks for the response.

I have the same problem. I planted my seed in mid May, and now the vine is 4 feet long with only male flowers blooming. i read female flowers bloom a week after the males. This is my first time planting seeds and gardening. i thought of using a brush and save the pollen from the males and wait for the females. If they ever feel like showing up.

Judith,

Almost all squashes have all male flowers blooming first, followed by females, only once the plant is large enough to sustain a fruit. Even then, it's common for the first squash baby or two to be aborted. Be patient, you'll get there!

Susan

It must be environmental to some extend. On my Summer and Winter Pepos and on my Moschatas and Maximas, nothing but female flowers. An occasional male on my lone zuke. So many female flower it's ridiculous. Most mornings there's lots of open females with nary a male in sight.

Hello,

I don't know if this is the best forum for a cucumber question. But, here we go. Does anyone know if cucumbers are pollinated by special bees other than regular size bees. I thought maybe because the flowers are smaller than squash type flowers that the bees might also be a smaller size. I noticed many bees in my squash patch but nothing around my cukes. My cukes have many male and female flowers. Though the baby cukes do not get bigger. Thanks to anyone with an answer.

Gourdglutton

Gourdglutton,

As a general rule, it is better etiquette to start a new thread when wanting to discuss a new topic, rather than changing the topic of someone else's thread. That being said, I will try to address your question.

I have mostly bumblebees in my own garden, with no smaller bees of note. But I have definitely seen them visiting my melon vines, which have flowers closer to the size of cucumbers. However, I, like you, had a problem with getting my cucumbers to achieve pollination. I solved this problem by turning to Parthenocarpic cucumbers. They have all female flowers and require no pollination. Not every baby cuc grows to a mature one, the plant can only handle so many at a time, but I've had great success where before I had failure. My favorite so far for quick growth and many cucs has been Rocky, a miniture English style cucumber offered by Johnny's seeds. I tried Diva as well, which is a full size English style, but it take way longer to grow in my garden.
Best of Luck,
Susan

All the info has been soooooo helpfull, Im writing from Merlo San Luis Argentina, clima and topography sort of mid. NM, this my first year with cucurbitaceas, zuccini, long neck seed from the US, got only loooooooong vines, the pumpking went all over the fence climed a tree bloomed lovely up there and...no female flowers. Now the days are shorter 21st of March started our fall, nights are cooler and I think the plant is saying I better fruit now or never ;-) in about 50 days could come the first frost.
Today I saw the firrrrrrrrrrst female flower not opened yet! now all the male flowers are gone, ugh tough to be a retired farmer ;-) thanks to all for the great info! as soon as I get something to grow will post a pic. happy Easter!

Is anyone still commenting on this board? I have only male flowers blooming and they are dying soon after blossom. My vines are 10 feet I've only seen a few bees so idk if they getting pollinated. I'm attempting to find a female flower but none in sight. This is my first time growing & it's super frustrating. Should I just start over next year? It think it's too late to plant now in time for Halloween. Thank you.

Hey there Miguel, when did you plant your pumpkins? Don't give up, they females are fashionably late!!! I'm growing pumpkins myself and this is my first time also. I get up every morning with that being on my mind first thing. It might still be to early for them, never know but don't give up on them just yet!

I am in the same boat! I have lots of male flowers and not one female. These poor boys are screaming for a little lady to come along but she is no where in sight. Would female flowers bloom if I cut off some males? I have at least 5-7 males.

No! Don't cut off any males. That will cause disease an easy way in. A female will show before too long. I FINALLY had a female shoe the day before yesterday and she finally opened up this morning! One thing could help is Miracle Grow once a week. And just keep your hope up and patience!!! She will show. :)

I have the same question as someone else on the forum. Can or should I pick several of the male flowers and save them to help pollenate the females when they decide to show up. Or would that not work.

I don't know if that would work or not. I'm pretty confident that you will get a female while males are on the vine. I've got females popping up every other morning and I've had plenty of males to go around. Do you have more than one pumpkin planted?

Kimberly thank you for responding. I have at least 10 pumpkin plants producing flowers. I counted 20 male flowers this morning and each one had a bee in it. The other question I have is, if the female does get pollenated will it produce a pumpkin in time for Halloween. My grand daughter keep the seeds from last years pumpkins and want to try growing our own of this year.

Possibly! We still have what, almost 2 months until Halloween? I hope so, when you water plant give it some miracle grow every week. Lol I've started feeding mine miracle grow once a week and it's like they are getting a boost of what they need. Just keep your fingers crossed and keep nurturing them pumpkins and I'm sure you will get some pumpkins before halloween.

Hello, I have planted my pumpkins in North Georgia (Red Clay Soil) around July 1, 2015. I'm seeing male flowers and no female flowers. One or two plants have a female flower but the other 18 pumpkin plants don't have any. I planted them to be harvested around a week or so before Halloween. So, with no female flowers yet and a ton of male flowers, will I have pumpkins for Halloween? Has the pumpkin plants missed the time frame where I'll have pumpkins for Halloween because they are late on producing female flowers?

Do you have any signs that a female is on the vines? I would say, your cutting it close. My pumpkins have lots of males but very few have produced a female.

Three plants have produced 1 or two female flowers, the other 17 plants haven't.

Eeek. Well you only have a very small window when the females open their bloom...so make sure you pollinate the girls even if the bees are busy collecting!

Any hope for the other 17 plants? I counted back on the days to harvest and mid October would be just right... So what is the problem, I just don't understand.... :(

I really don't know myself. All I can tell ya is keep a good eye on them, feed them some miracle grow every week and pray that they did their thing before Halloween. I have 6 pumpkin plants that I'm seriously just watering to keep green feels like. I bet I'm gonna have to cut my losses with them. :(

I'm in Southern Georgia and having the same problem as many of you. I planted pumpkin seeds in July (because I happened to have some) and they grew. They've been producing Male blossoms for over a month now but I've not seen any female blossoms and not one single fruit... I believe I've watered and fertilized them properly. They've been very healthy, but recently some have gotten a fungus of some sort. I've sprayed them with Epson Salt with a smidgen of detergent.... Anyway, Here we are only a few weeks away from Halloween and I have about 30 pumpkin plants with lots of male blossoms, no female blossoms and no fruit... So, someone please enlighten me!?!?!? What's going on?

Hey there docttt. I fell in the same boat as you. I literally just yanked all 10 of my pumpkin plants up out of the ground and said forget it! I would get females and I would pollinate them and then suddenly after a week they would just inflate and disintegrate! I had enough! I honestly think we the southern states should really start them in June, like mid June.

FWIW, 'days to maturity' on pumpkins can be well over 100 days...

Thank you very much for that info!!!! I have pretty much talked myself in that I need to start way earlier next year.

Hi..I m from Malaysia..my pumpkin plant has no flowers at all..pls advise

It could be because it's too late in the season, weather has cooled down and the plants aren't developing as fast. So your plant may not develop anymore for this season......maybe....

So sadT_T

I asked this question during a webinar I am on and this seems to be a new phenomenon that couldn't be answered. Not that I don't love fried squash blossoms but the veggies go a long way. Could be the soil is too acidic. Highly recommend organic or heirloom seeds. The genetically modified ones could also be the reason.

I had one female flower that I cross pollinated. It grew for about a week or 2 and then it died. Now all I have are male flowers. Does anyone know what might have caused it to die?

Im not having very much luck with even seeing females on my pumpkin vines, BUT Im having great luck with my watermelon, hand pollinating, I wake up every morning to check my blooms, Timing is everything ( about 8 am is best for my area) What I have found is that if I use the male stamen and them leave it on the female pistol I end up with nice growing fruit. When I dont do that it seems I get poor pollination and the fruit will grow a little then die. As far as the pumpkins I have seen a few female buds but they fall off before they bloom. I still have a lot of buds that have not bloomed. My 3 little honey bees keep hopping over to the pumpkins so maybe they know something I dont.

I'm getting male and female flowers on the same plant? Also they where planted in late June and have not grown any vines just a plant ?? the seeds where taken from a large random pumpkin I had last year can some one explain what's going on here?

Brandon, do you mean that you are getting male and female flowers on the same plant? If so, then good, that's what supposed to happen.

Pumpkin plants are actually vines. There are traditional long, vining types, and there are bush types. Both types are vines, but bush types are quite short, and, well... bushy.

Seeds from a random pumpkin are often a cross between two types, or the 'children' of hybrids. It's impossible to know how the plant will grow, or what genes will be expressed until it is growing.

How long does pollen last

Shane, in the field, pollen is usually available for only a few hours. Depending on the weather, and humidity - even bee and insect activity - it can become scarce very fast.

Some breeders collect and store pollen. Properly handled, in controlled conditions, it can 'last' quite a long time. This is impractical though for the average gardener.

Started Growing mine in July and no female flowers lots and lots of males could it be that I am not supposed to do it in a container I figured if I start them in a container and let them flow over the mulch area since I have an issue with the area if I put soil and it rains it overflows into the pool...

I hope the forum isn't 2 old & noone will see this but u CAAAAAN save your male blooms!! Pick them & put them in a glass of water & put them in the refrigerator. The pollen on them will last for weeks & weeks..

It's normal for males to dominate before females start to bloom. Even then you will see pretty much one female to every ten males. To the poster who thinks his male flowers are dying off: all pumpkin flowers bloom for only a few hours every morning before they die off. As for not cutting the male flowers, I disagree. I've been growing pumpkins going on ten years now and if there are no female flowers to pollinate, then I will cut the male flowers just before they start to shrivel. I've yet to get a diseased plant doing this. I cut the male flowers because they are delicious to eat. So if you don't get pumpkins, you can enjoy cooking and eating the male flowers throughout the growing season. I cut off the stem, gently rinse them under cold water and saute them after dredging through a thin whole-wheat pancake batter - yum!

BTW. I should mention that pumpkins are very difficult to hand pollinate. You'r e better off putting out bee loving flowers early in the season in order to get your location established on the honey bees routes. Ants do a pretty good job also, so if you see ants around your pumpkin vines, then do not try to exterminate them. If you do want to hand pollinate, then use a very soft artists brush and lightly stroke the pistol of a male plant (you should not see tons of pollen - in this case a little is too much), then lightly stroke the stamen of the female plant (again a little is too much). Even then you are not likely to succeed with hand pollination.

First time I attempted to grow pumpkins but I have only ONE!! Virtually all the blossoms are male so I conclude my one pumpkin is truly a miracle! This morning I will purchase Miracle Grow fertilizer to possibly get a few females. Thus my first attempt is quite disappointing.

Waiting for the female flowers to pop up 🙂

I planted 7 different varieties, so I wonder how the results will be. Thank you for the very informative thread.

A few more things that I learned this growing season.

I get far more female flowers when I supplement feed the pumpkin plants with 1 tsp of Botanicare Cal-Mag in the water once every other week. This not only supplements calcium and magnesium a little nitrogen as well, which is what I think helps bring out the female flowers. I have also done away with the artist brush for hand pollinating. Instead, I take a pistol place it in front of the open female flower, and gently blow the pollen off the pistol. When done, and the pistol shows no visible signs of pollen left, I gently touch the tip of the stamen with the pistol. This has improved my self pollination success from 20% to 100%.