weirdtrev;

thx much for rply. I am growing pie size pumpkins (a little smaller than the typical jack-o-lantern") so I guess I am doing OK. I see fields with waaaaay more pumpkins than I'm getting but that must be simply because they're planting a lot more vines.

my vines grow very vigorously (easily 10' or more) so I was expecting more pumpkins particularly with the number of flowers on each vine.

Question: should the vine be trimmed at some point during the season?

I will try your suggestion of burying the vines. I am growing the pumpkins in the area between young fruit trees so it's not grass; just whatever weeds are there. I am mulching the mound with the same wood chip mulch I use around my fruit trees.

again thx for help.

Mark in MN

thx again for help. I'll do better this year!

Have you checked to see what pollinator populations you have?

Sometimes if you are doing everything right and there simply aren't any bees or other good pollinators around, you wont get many fruit.

Sit and count how many bees you see working your vines. If there don't seem to be very many you can hand pollinate pumpkin flowers fairly easily, or get a bee-hive and put a colony of bees in it.

Have fun.

Wondering if maybe your soil has too much nitrogen in it, which would result in great leaf growth and not so great pumpkin set? I got a lousy pumpkin harvest this year, but it was thanks to the invasion of the moles and voles, they kept disturbing the roots with their burrowing, and ended up only getting a few pumpkins. Then stink bugs screwed with some of the late maturing ones too. I grow them on compost, with clay soil underneath. Some seeds sprouted and grew great out of a compost pile I had, so maybe try to grow them in there, can't hurt! :)

Check out this article for more info on how many pumpkins grow per plant.