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We are having a pumpking growing competition at work and I live in an apartment, so I'm working with what I have ๐
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!
If the male flower die so soon, how do the female flowers get pollinated? I never understood that part.
Different plants make male/female flowers at different times. This is to prevent the plant from pollinating itself.
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?
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.
Maybe 2, an heir and a spare like a royal family