I have this incredibly HUGE pumpkin plant taking over my backyard…

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

And that’s just the part of the one plant that’s come through the fence and is actually bleeding into the front yard!

Anyway, I’ve grown pumpkins in the past and the best I traditionally do is 1…at most 2…pumpkins! This time around, I’m going to try my hand at (drumroll please!) hand-pollination!

I’d read that those enormous pumpkins you see winning blue ribbons at county fairs are typically hand-pollinated. And those who are super-serious will even use plastic bags to ensure the male and female flowers keep as much of their pollen on hand as possible!

How does this work? Well, for those who didn’t realize, plants in the squash family — to include cucumbers and pumpkins — have both “male” and “female” flowers on the same plant. Male flowers are typically bigger and are on a longer stem, while female flowers will have a bulbous piece just behind the flower…which is what eventually becomes the squash itself when pollinated. On a pumpkin, the first you’d see male flowers — LOTS of male flowers — and then after several weeks (at least 4 weeks in my case), you will see female flowers appear. I’ve had less than 6 so far.

Here’s a male flower. Note the thinner stem and the stamen in the center:

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

And the female flower. The bulb behind the flower and the multiple “stigma”…with an opening in the center for? You guessed it — the male flower’s pollen!

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

So here’s the deal. You have to do this early enough in the morning that the flowers are all still open. Most pumpkin flowers will shrivel up by mid-day, especially on warm days. You pick a male flower off its stem, and pluck off the petals, exposing its “manliness”:

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

Then you rub the male and female innards together…this is rated NC-17, sorry!

From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin Pollination

Now…some folks who have tried that have reported that you’ll see evidence of success in as few as 12 hours — the bulb will begin growing. In an unsuccessful pollination, the flower would fall off and the bulb will turn yellow and shrivel off the flower.

I’ll check tomorrow morning for evidence of success/failure of today’s pollination. There should be another flower ready to attempt tomorrow.