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Doylestown, PA

I've had my first two three female flowers on two different plants rot without opening (at least, if they opened I missed it).

I've been checking for open flowers in the morning, but these seemed to turn black an rot as soon as they turned yellow. Is this the sign of a bigger problem, or does it just happen sometimes?

6/26/2006 9:16:50 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Could be a Calcium deficiency, heat related or a fungal pathogen. Was your patch soil tested? How hot has it been? Ever grow in this patch before this year?

6/26/2006 9:39:25 PM

Doylestown, PA

It's a new patch, haven't tested the soil yet.

Up until yesterday it has been in the high 80's and low 90's.

6/26/2006 9:58:04 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Since getting the soil tested now would take too long you might try shading the females to keep the sun off them.

Another thought is to place a barrier between the soil & the females to keep rain from splashing soil onto them. Some fruit rot fungi live in the soil & are splashed by rain.

Spraying Nutri-cal or a similar chelated calcium material might also help but without a soil test in hand this could be a wasted of time.

6/27/2006 12:39:35 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

Was anything grown in the patch before? stringbeans, tomato etc...Fertilizers with heavy N will abort the pumpkins early or not allow to open. Pathogen would be my biggest fear it took me two years to realize that it was a pathogen. If you can rule out the N problem...get a fresh tissue sample to a lab...Good Luck! GrowEmBig! Chuck

6/27/2006 6:47:46 AM

Doylestown, PA

No, nothing was grown in the patch before. I trucked in about 20 yards of composted manure and tilled it in before the season started.

The plant is growing very strong, lately there has been A LOT of rain and the flowers have been wet. I don't know if that makes a difference. Fortunately the plant has several more females so hopefully I can get something pollinated.

6/27/2006 7:39:46 AM

Doylestown, PA

I don't know if it would work, but I had a female this morning that looked like it should have opened. It turned color from green to yellow/orange but stayed shut... I went ahead and gently seperated the flower, pollinated it and tied it back closed.... Hopefully it will set!?!?

6/27/2006 8:04:59 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

could be that the manure was still hot with nitrogen and the rain will leach some of it out...

6/27/2006 8:23:26 AM

Doylestown, PA

I've been googling it, and found a couple sites that say that overcast, rainy weather can cause females to abort without opening. Haven't been able to find any posts on here about it though...

Hopefully that's the case and after it dries up at the end of the week I can get a good pollination!

6/27/2006 8:59:20 AM

Doylestown, PA

Dang, two more females rotted off today... starting to get nervous!!

6/27/2006 6:38:08 PM