This past summer i planted pumpkins and watermelons from seed. My first time attempting this. I had nice big vines/plants and i think i followed the instructions properly for seeding etc. My problem is I had nice big flowers each and every morning but not one fruit materialized all summer. Just flowers. Never saw on the vines what looked to be female flowers. (Goggled pictures and saw flowers with a round ball on the vine right before the flower) Anyone have any advice for this years attempt? Another thing I noticed was a white powdery look to the leaves in August. Almost like baby powder but stained into the leaves. I have many bee's around the yard which seem to love the rest of the garden. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I wish I could help you with the watermelons. I tried 2 years in a row without success. However we get alot of pumpkins. Pumpkins need a lot of poop! They love manure and through out the growing season you need to fertilize. They will get female flowers once you really fertilize them. If you want big pumpkins once a pumpkin is set on the vine about the size of a baseball pull all other flowers off that vine. It also helps to cover the vine with more dirt. The vine will produce more roots and be healthier and stronger. This past year I planted 4 hills and got 20 pumpkins. Each hill had a full 20lb bag of composted cow manure in it! They love it. Good luck!
Thanks for the response, is very appreciated. I only added fertilizer when i first started them off, so that might be where i went wrong. I just assumed I had lots of vines and lots of flowers that all was well. I am sure whatever i did wrong was the same for both the pumpkins and watermelons. Cant wait to reattempt this year
The watermelons are so much harder. Pumpkins if they are fertilized will grow and grow...I can't figure out watermelons. 3 failed years....I will just buy them from now on!
Watermelons grow better in sandy loam.I have raised them in pure compost but they are not very sweet.I mixed them with top soil and compost and they grew well and tasted great.I never tried pumpkin growing.You need bees and butterflies to pollinate the plants too.
With pumpkins, first you will see all male flowers. Then you see both sexes. The females do have what looks like a baby squash below the blossom. Winter squash need at least 3 mos of frost free days. 2008 was not the best yr for pumpkin here. I hardly had anything and I normally have a bumper crop. The white powder you saw is probably powdery mildew. I do not use any type of fertilizer after the initial application of composted manure. But I do bury the vines every 3-4 ft. The plants will set down more roots.
High Phosphorus for More Blooms Something to consider: feed the plants with a high-phosphorus fertilizer, this will help put more blooms on the plant.
