Pumpkin pollen

Question

I guess I wasn’t clear. I know how to hand pollinate. My male flowers have no pollen no matter how early I get up and how long I babysit them. I tie off the female as soon as I hand pollinate. My question is – why no pollen on my male flowers and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

The lack of pollen could be a result of not enough sun (pumpkin plants need 6-8 hours of sun) or inconsistent watering. It could also be a result of extremely high temperatures for multiple days in a row. Additionally, if your nighttime temperatures are averaging as high as the low 70’s F., that will affect pollen viability as well. There is nothing you can really do about the lack of pollen except perhaps try to find someone locally who may have a healthy plant and beg them for a few of their male flowers. You could transport those flowers back to your plants and try shaking or wiping the pollen off onto the female flowers at the appropriate time of day (before about 10:00 a.m. local time).

Here are some additional articles that may help you with future pumpkin plants:

https://agdev.anr.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=1583

https://extension.psu.edu/plants/sustainable/documents/Pumpkin%20Pollinators.pdf

Read more at Gardening Know How: Pumpkin Plant Not Producing: Why A Pumpkin Plant Flowers But No Fruit https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pumpkin/pumpkin-flowers-but-no-fruit.htm