Why Are My Butternut Pumpkins Only Growing to a Very Small Size?

Question

The pumpkins are being hand pollinated and start growing ok, but only one has grown to any normal size. What can I do to promote fruit growth?

Answer 1

It sounds like you don't have sufficient pollination or too much fruit set. If there are too many fruits on each vine, each fruit won't get enough nutrition to mature to full size. Consider limiting the nu mber of fruit on each vine. Example: the huge pumpkins that exceed 800-1000 pounds...only 1 fruit per vine, that way al energy is put into that fruit. Each variety of curcubits has it's own optimum harvest count.