Pumpkin Pollination

[loong]

Hi all,

I find it extremely frustrating that all my pumpkin plants tend to either produce just male or just female flowers at any one time. This means that the females don't get pollinated and so no pumpkins.

I had quite a few females recently and looked around the village to see if the few people growing pumpkins had any males, but no.

I am wondering if anyone has actually kept male flowers/pollen in order to pollinate the females when they appear.

If so, what is the best way to store the flowers/pollen.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[CPT]

I have never tried it but I have heard of people freezing pollen with good results. Just the pollen, no plant matter. When I have grown summer squash here I have had to hand pollinate but always had ample male flowers. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to try a different strain next season?

[loong]

Thanks for the reply CPT.

Since my OP, I've finally had male and female flowers at the same time and have managed to hand pollinate successfully.

I have tried a couple of different pumpkins in the past, but they never do as well as the one I have growing. I don't know what they are called, but very common in Thailand.

I have looked at a few websites, and it seems that a plant will produce mainly male flowers when stressed, so I will keep that in mind.