We are having a pumpking growing competition at work and I live in an apartment, so I’m working with what I have 😆

The plant already produced many male flowers. From what I have read, the male flowers usually come out 10 - 14 days before the female flowers. They open up for a single day and then they close and fall off.

I found out that tey are edible, so I stuffed a few of them with some left overs as a culinary experiment.

And the first female flower has arrived!

  • B4kst33n@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    10 days ago

    Different plants make male/female flowers at different times. This is to prevent the plant from pollinating itself.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      10 days ago

      Since OP only has one plant, should they self-pollinate it with a paintbrush? It won’t aquire genetic diversity but it should produce a pumpkin or two, right?

      • Salamander@mander.xyzOPEnglish
        12·
        10 days ago

        My plan is to remove the petals from the freshest male flower available and rub that directly.

        I store the previous set of male flowers in a cup with a bit of water in the fridge :

        If I don’t pick a male flower, the next day it looks like this:

        I did this in case that the male flowers would stop coming out when the females came. But I think my worry was not warranted… because the plant is swarming with male flowers. That’s why I have begun cooking them.

        I am still not sure of whether I will pollinate a single flower to try to grow a large pumpkin, or if I will go for multiple pumpkins.