The first male flower arrived this week on one of the pumpkin plants. (We still have three plants in the patch—this will need to change soon, but we’re going to give it another week or so since there’s still room for three.)
The male flowers arrive a week or two before the female flowers. If a grower wants to control pollination—i.e. not let the birds and bees take care of things—the male flowers are covered until the female flowers appear and open. This is what Rose and Thomas do in Giant Pumpkin Suite.
But we’ve not had good luck with this method in the past; the flower withers and dies before it is needed for pollination (around the 4th of July in Minnesota.) I’ll probably do a little research and we’ll try it again this year, though. Usually there are several male flowers, so a variety of ways can be tried without ruining our chances.
The plant seems a little small to be flowering…but hopefully it’ll grow into itself?
