A FEW weeks ago, this column discussed the process of growing pumpkins at home and how to pollinate your own plants.
Today, we’re going to talk about how to do it. All about pumpkins!
Some of the best pumpkins for growing at home are the butternut, an elongated beige colour with smooth flesh that is an ideal size for the home garden.
As far as garden size goes, that would depend on how many pumpkins you wanted to plant. If you have the room, then planting just three should give you as many pumpkins as you want.
You can still have a small area produce a number of pumpkins by going vertical, however the pumpkins would have to be supported as they got bigger.
A decent frame would be required for this method. If you like the kent pumpkin and you have plenty of room for it just to wander, it is possible to get over 17 pumpkins off the one vine. Store the surplus in a cool shed.
About six weeks after your seeds germinate, the first yellow open- throated flowers appear, now these are the male flowers, or staminate blooms. They usually start blooming a couple of weeks before the female or pistillate flowers appear. Some people believe that because they are both yellow, they are identical. However, the key distinction lies in the small baby pumpkin nestled deep within the flower itself.
Pumpkins need pollination to mature. Now this is normally done by bees but sometimes these are lacking in the home garden. If they’re not pollinated they will turn yellow and die, so if you see that happening then you must do the pollinating yourself as soon as you can.
Now this is where it can get tricky! Sometimes there may be an abundance of male flowers but not many female flowers, or what might happen is that the males all die before the female flowers come out.
You’re now in trouble! So what should you do?
Well, every morning, early (that’s every morning!) have a look at the plants, and if you see an opportunity, take a male flower and peel the leaves off, leaving the stamen separate. It will have fuzzy pollen on it.
Take the stamen and gently rub each segment of the female pistil until there’s plenty of sticky pollen on every single segment.
You’ll soon see if you have succeeded in your early morning tryst, by that little pumpkin gradually growing as time goes by.
It’s almost like you’ve had a hand in nature and succeeded, it can be quite exciting!!
Till next time.
