Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi there, after the great response I got on my question about knowing when to pull root veg I've got another!

I've got a jack o' lantern plant that I had hoped would provide a pumpkin for halloween, unfortunately the first plant got destroyed by slugs so I planted a second one in August. It has produced a number of flowers but each one has died off with no sign of any fruit. Does this mean I have missed the boat and they were not pollinated?

This year's courgettes/Pumpkins and the like have been truly dreadful, so don't feel disheartened.

27th April we lanted a pumpkin seed which never germinated; it was my partner's daughter's [10] so we wanted a sucess for her. 2 weeks later it hadn't sprouted so i put another in which did.

It is now in the garden 5 months later; it has had 2 tiny pumpkins which have fallen off when 2 inches wide. It has had sun, rain [of course, but wasn't planted out until the rains stopped], fertilisers, something to climb up, and lots of bees and insects to move the pollen about but has been a total failure. No idea why it won't keep the fruit - probably the sme as yourself - just been a bad year all round.

I have a courgette with round golf ball fruits; one of which i have left on the plant - it is now about 8 inches in diameter and green as you can get. I am going to paint it orange at the end of October as it's the only pumpkin we are going to get this year.

Hi - I agree, it's been a bad year for pumpkins, mainly 'cos of all the wet and windy weather, slugs & snails and lack of bees. Next year, I'd advise planting out several more (I germinated about 8, planted out 6 and only 3 have made it) and try to attract more pollinators with marigolds, sunflowers and comfrey. Even then, I've lost several to slugs before they got to the size of tennis balls, but then I don't use pellets.
Better luck next time ; )

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