Pumpkins with queer habits?

[Jessiebean]

My pumpkins in the front garden are planted close together and flowering madly (they are golden nuggets, very compact) but there are no female flowers at all. Probably a dozen flowers on each little plant but nary a female...why would this be?

[grahamhobbs]

Wait!! This is what pumpkins tend to do at first, then all of a sudden they produce female flowers.

[Jessiebean]

Thanks- I will do so. This is my first serious attempt at vege gardening so I have no idea about so many things!

[ElizabethBinary]

TSK! I thought this forum was better than that! Making fun of homosexual pumpkins, indeed! How dare you! Those pumpkins love each other just as much as if they were male and female! You should support gay pumpkin rights. I do.

GLBTP

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Pumpkins, man.

I wouldn't join the Gay and Lesbian apples though, they're a bunch of fruits.

[Jessiebean]

Well there is to be none of that sort of goings on in Mumma Jess' benevolent dictatorship of a garden- reproduce or be banished!!! (This only applies to fruit and veg however...gay people and animals are welcome.. in fact I wish a few of the pests about were of that persuasion then I might not have so many generations of them feasting on my garden!).

[Millymollymandy]

I agree with Graham - and for future reference if you ever grow melons they're even worse! They can flower for several weeks before producing a female one.

[Jessiebean]

ooh I will bear that in mind but I think melons are "not recommended" for our climate...which is a shame- I suppose I could use poly tunnels or sumfink but it sounds like they would be very frustrating for me!

[Millymollymandy]

I wonder why not, you aren't as hot as mainland Australia so I'd have thought your climate just perfect. The warmer and sunnier the summer the better they do, and even I have had some success in not always very warm or very sunny Brittany!

[Jessiebean]

I suspect there is a lot of scaremongering around this country about what can and can't be grown where- I wonderful lady called Jackie french is always proving folks wrong at her place Near Braidwood which has a similar climate to here- she grows all kinds of subtropical only plants about her place evidently...
Once I have mastered pumpkins (I have courgettes down pat!) and have fiddled with the odd cucumber(now didn't that come out wrong!) I may foray into melons as I am emboldened by your claims!

[Millymollymandy]

Just to clarify I am talking about the Charentais type of melon (orange fleshed) and not water melon! I don't know anything about growing them.

I found a variety that is more suited to cooler climates which by its very name is local to my area - 'Petit Gris de Rennes' (Rennes being our capital 30kms away), and that did very well compared to the usual Charentais melons that I 'try' to grow!

[Green Rosie]

I found a variety that is more suited to cooler climates which by its very name is local to my area - 'Petit Gris de Rennes' (Rennes being our capital 30kms away), and that did very well compared to the usual Charentais melons that I 'try' to grow!

Where did you get your seeds MMM? I did melons last year with average success and would like to try and do better this year.

[Millymollymandy]

I bought a baby plant from Agrial and had huge success with it, although the skin of the melons had disease most of them were fine inside and I had about 15 pretty decent sized melons off that one plant - compared to a few tennis ball sized ones (if I'm lucky) from the Charentais melons!

I saved some seed but I don't know if they will work, as I read that the Petit Gris are traditionally grafted onto other rootstock (sounds a bit odd to me for an annual!) but I will be experimenting this year! I have never seen these fruit for sale though.

http://www.petitgris.com/

[Green Rosie]

I'll keep an eye open for these in Agrial later in the year then and let you know how I get on.

[Jessiebean]

Just found my first female flower growing on the pumpkins in question(no mildew thank goodness!).
The melons you have been growing are what we call rockmelons and Yanks (generic Aus term for all Americans, not just Yankees BTW) call Canteloupe?

Like this?
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl= ... CBQQ9QEwBA
ok. wow I think that is the longest Url I have ever seen
also on this page you can see the slightly sinister looking character made out of fruit and veg that the Government over here thinks will persuade people to eat more fruit and veg.
There is a rather bizarre TV ad featuring this fruit and veg character interviewing Dame Edna everage who is mostly made fromm purple cabbage and spanish onions... I believe you are familiar with Dame Edna over there? (for some reason- our exports can be quite cringeworthy- I would like to formally apologise for Rolf Harris but it all started before I was born so I couldn't stop him)
Anyway I am digressing fearfully-the same book I have that tells me not to grow watermelons tells me not to grow rockmelons too but Gardenate http://www.gardenate.com/plant/Rockmelonwho I trust and you MMM tell me I can so I might try!

[Millymollymandy]

First of all, have we heard of Dame Edna? Is the pope catholic? Try getting that old biddy off our TV screens.

This is my avatar on the Brittany forum I use



Long story but my username is Madame Moorhen (used to have moorhens on my pond) then someone saw a photo of me and said oh what a surprise, she'd always pictured me as a Dame Edna lookalike (worrying!!!) so the glasses and wig kind of got added to the moorhen...... yeah I know

Back to the melons, yes those are the ones.

Don't take any notice of anything saying you can't grow something, everyone in the UK and in northern France is always trying stuff that might not be suitable for our climates and some you win and some you lose, but you will never know unless you try. Don't blame me if you have a cold summer next year though!