HELP!! Immature Pumpkin plant

Hi everyone...so I have a pumpkin plant, I'm assuming jack-o-lantern, that my daughter was given at her school. It was started in a small little plastic cup, I mean like a 2 Oz cup with minimal soil. So, the plant has grown to about a foot tall, but it has produced around 7 male flowers, I believe they are male. I'm wanting to try and save the plant for her, so I put it into my garden.

But do I need to cut the flowers off? They have not opened yet either. I was hoping I could get it to startup the growing process since I put it in the ground....any help would greatly appreciated!!!

Brandon

you could cut the flower buds off, which would help it focus its energy on growth. other than that, give it a bit of nitrogen and stand back!

Awesome...I was wondering if that was possible...I appreciate your response greatly!!

Another thing you can do since it probably didn't have the room to grow a good root system is mound up the dirt around the stem. Wherever the stem touches the ground, it will grow little roots so that'll help it grow bigger faster.

One of the most successful pumpkin plants I've ever grown was a seed my two year old stuck in a tiny cup at the spring fair and we stick in a corner of the lawn (we were renting at the time and didn't have a big garden). They can be pretty resilient.

FYI - if the flowers are at the end of a longish straight stalk, they are male. If there's a bulb (roundish if a pumpkin, sort of long oval if something like a zucchini) near the plant stem and the flower bud right at the end of the bulge, it's a female.

There are people who harvest the extra male flowers and dredge and fry them, but that takes more oil than I'm generally willing to use.

Bees generally LOVE squash flowers (I mean, what's *not* to love about big, bright, funnel shaped flowers) so stacking functions by teaching your daughter about pollination would be good permaculture, as would letting her pee a few feet away to "fertilize" the plant and not waste useful nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium by sending it down the toilet... OK, maybe I'm getting beyond the "beginner gardener" department, but one never knows when someone will see the light and turn their neighborhood into a food forest jungle!

I had a very happy pumpkin plant one year, grown in mostly horse shit, that produced 11 lovely pumpkins. It was a pie pumpkin, rather than Jack-o-lantern, and it made me a lot of pumpkin pies, muffins, breads, neighborhood connections (yeah, 11 was a few more than I could store long enough to use - I shared the bounty)

Hmm...interesting....I didn't think of "pee" as a food source for the plants....any and all info is DEFINITELY welcome...I'm like a sponge...

Also, I may need to "mound" the soil a bit more...so thats good to know.

I appreciate the comments and help immensely!!

I’m shamelessly going to ask another question about an immature pumpkin plant!

I have a pumpkin plant with only 5 leaves, it has not ”vined” yet at all. It already produced a female flower that opened today and a few male flowers that are not open yet.

Would it be smart to take at least the female flower away and let the plant grow more before letting it start producing fruit?

@ Saana: From my experience, if the plant doesn't feel it can support fruiting at this time, it will abort the fruit. In fact, if there are no blooming male flowers in the area, or no bugs/bees to get the pollen to the female flower, it will also abort it.

The plant may be responding to day length or light levels. Does it have plenty of soil nutrient and water to encourage it to put out more green growth?

@Jenny Wright

Thanks for that little tidbit...I noticed the root going to soil after I read your reply....I made the mound you suggested...

This is giving me hope!!!

Thank you all!!!

Thanks Jay!

I think the male flowers will open tomorrow so pollination is possible. Maybe I’ll wait and see what happens!

Thank you Brandon for making this thread.