Your comments and tips

18 Mar 19, LESLEY MCCUBBIN (Australia - temperate climate)

Thanks. I do have lots of bees. The grandchildren love to watch them in the pumpkin flowers..so no problem there. I planted them in Oct. and manured, composted and fertilized the soil, but at time of planting,not 2 weeks before. Does this make a difference? Thanks for the tip, I will do some more research.

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12 Mar 19, Bincy Philip (Australia - temperate climate)

Do not water pumpkin plants in the evening. If the leaves stay wet in the night, there are higher chances of powdery mildew.

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11 Mar 19, Judy (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

i live in Tasmania, and have self seed pumpkin plants which look healthy. It is now March and they have produced only male flowers. Is it too late for them to produce pumpkins now, even if they do ever produce female flowers?

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12 Mar 19, Mike (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

They produce male flowers first to start attracting the bees - then you get some female and male flowers. If the plants are older than 12 weeks and no pumpkins growing yet then they probably won't produce any. A new pumpkin takes about 3-4 weeks to grow and then 4-6 weeks to mature.

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03 Mar 19, Bec (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Hi, I’m based in Brisbane and have my second season of pumpkin plants in the garden, japs and blue, most likely. This lot have just sprung up from compost that wasn’t fully decomposed that I used to plant some sweet potatoes and other things in. My pumpkin vines are wilting quite badly and I have just read a bit about the cucumber beetle spreading bacterial wilt, which I will check for ASAP. Just wondering, if I do find the sticky, white strands, indicating bacterial wilt, do I need to pull out all of the effected plants? If I don’t find the bacteria present do you think the wilting may be caused by a bacteria in the compost? I thought the plants were just super thirsty so I was watering nearly daily but today we have had quite a decent amount of rain and this afternoon my pumpkin leaves are still wilting but when it cools down they have sprung back up again. It really hasn’t been very hot today, which is what encouraged me to research and ask.... Thanks in advance for your advice. Bec

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03 Mar 19, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I have no idea - I had pumpkin plants through to Feb last year through temps up to 37 degrees - Bundaberg. They never looked wilted in the middle of the day. I did water each day though. I don't own the website I just comment.

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28 Feb 19, John Saunders (Australia - temperate climate)

Thank you for advising people that the pumpkin should be left until the vine dies / drys! It is impossible to by a "real" pumpkin from a shop these days because they are all cut off the vine early. The producers / sellers have even gone to the extent of cutting the stalk remains off so the subterfuge is not apparent. I love a good pumpkin. Where do I get one? Not locally.

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03 Mar 19, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I see pumpkin grown around here and they are left to die off before picking. A pumpkin left to mature will keep for a long time - immature they will not last long. In commercial crops if you left the stalk on when picking it would probably scratch other pumpkins in transport and then ruin them.

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21 Feb 19, Kate Mundy (Australia - temperate climate)

I planted JAP pumpkin seedlings about 3 months ago, (coastal Victoria) I have never had a flower but the plants are doing well enough, should I pull them out, or is it possible they will still product fruit?

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22 Feb 19, Mike (Australia - temperate climate)

May have planted too late - try planting earlier next time.

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