Same thing is happening to me on early prolific straightneck-- does anybody know what causes it? Not all my squash is affected, just the EPS. Any ideas appreciated!

dropthepurpleturtle I replied to your problem on the other thread found here and your plants will keep producing flowers until they die when the frost hits them.

Female flowers turn yellow and fall off before they open because the plant can't support the fruit since the plant is too small, unhealthy or has too many fruits already on it. It is not a disease or serious problem.

This is the first time I've tried to grow pumpkins and I'm running into problems. Most female flowers simply fall off and the one little pumpkin I had form turned mushy and fell off the vine. It was only about golf-ball size at the time. Any idea what all I'm doing wrong? I'm located in zone 8 near San Antonio.

Helotesscribe, In my experience this is caused by one or more of 4 different things.

1) Wrong amount of water. Water more or less depending upon situation.

2) Not enough nutrients. Fertilize with 10-10-10 plus trace minerals. If spraying onto plant leaves, add a natural fertilizer, such as fish emulsion, to provide vitamins.

3) Wrong pH. Adjust pH of soil by adding dolomitic lime or sulphur.

4) Cultivar is not suited to your region. Find out what your neighbors are growing, and grow those cultivars. A lot of people also have trial gardens and plant a few seeds of several cultivars to see what grows well for them. For example, I have planted well over 100 cultivars of pumpkins just to find less than 10 that are well suited to my soil and climate.

Good luck.