Growing a Pumpkin Plant!: Update 3

This is update 3 of our pumpkin plant! We're getting a pumpkin! Before that, if you haven't seen update two, check it out here: https://lathaayurveda.wixsite.com/website/post/growing-a-pumpkin-plant-update-2

Our vine had vigorous growth throughout July and produced many flowers. To get a pumpkin, you have to take the pollen from a male flower and put it in the female flower. The pictures below will help you identify which flowers are male or female.

Male: Usually these will appear first on your pumpkin plant and contains pollen. They have a long, straight stem and smell heavenly.

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Female: These flowers appear later on the vine. You can identify them by the small ball under the flower. It grows larger as the flower blooms and if it's pollinated, it will grow into a pumpkin.

The videos below show how to pollinate the flowers.

Gently rub a paintbrush on the inside of the male flower like the one shown above. You should see little pollen grains on the brush. The camera didn't focus on the brush in the video :)

Take the brush with the pollen and rub it on the inside of the female flower (the pistil). The flower should close by the end of the day and within a week, you will see the bottom ball growing!

Here are some pictures of our pumpkin plants:

The pumpkin slowly got darker as it grew. At first it was smooth and round but after two weeks, the ridges started forming! We also grew a few more plants which will produce female flowers soon.

Tips and Troubleshooting:

• Fertilize your plant a LOT. Pumpkins love to take up nutrients. We used organic vegetable fertilizer and epsom salt. Do not feed your plant too much nitrogen as that will result in a large vine but not many flowers.

• Water your plant frequently. Pumpkins take in a lot of water and even though we water the vines in the morning, they are dry in the evening!

• Do not let your pumpkin develop touching the soil. Doing this will prevent soil-borne diseases and fungus.

• If you start to see white patches on your pumpkin leaves it is a sign of powdery mildew. Spray a solution of 1.5 tsp 3% hydrogen peroxide with 1 cup of water on the leaves. Do this once a week until the mildew is gone.

• After one pumpkin starts developing, any other female flowers will dry up before blooming to save energy.

You can cook the male flowers too! I only knew this after speaking to my neighbor. Just pull the top half of the petals off. Wash them thoroughly, and add them to any curry you make! Make sure not to eat the base of the flower or the stamen.

That's it for update three! Stay tuned for the last update, the harvest, which we will publish at the end of August or early September. Let us know in the comments about how your plant is doing!