Pumpkin question

I am in Zone 6a. I have already gotten one orange pumpkin off of one of my three pumpkin plants. I think it seems kind of early for that to happen. I thought typically they were not ready until October. The plant that I picked the pumpkin off of has been attacked by powdery mildew and vine borers so I am not sure if it is going to make it. The other two plants are doing pretty well except they keep growing female flowers that die off before opening up. I have been giving them nutrients occasionally and have threw some mushroom compost down. The plants are nice and healthy looking except for the dying female flowers problem. Should I expect them to give me some pumpkins later this month or in September?

Thanks,
Jake

My pumpkin plant got a borer also. It is trained to grow up a trellis. I slit the vine with a razor blade from the ground to about 12 inches up, opened the vine and cleaned everything out that did not look normal and then squished water from a hose to flush out any remaining debri. I then took string and trussed the stem tight where it had been opened and then "sealed" it with Elmer's glue. This was my first experience with plant surgery, so far it has been 10 days and the patient is doing well.

Elmer's glue. hmm. hopefully the chemicals from that don't leach in to the pumpkin. I guess if you are not going to eat them then it is ok. :)

I was thinking I would just take some of this stretchy tie wrap stuff that I found at the hardware store. those vine borers!

So many elementary kids have been eating Elmer's glue for so many years I don't see how it could hurt you even if you do eat the pumpkin :-} Besides, the medical folks use Super Glue to patch folks up these days too. Sounds like Kirk may have come up with a good idea!

Argh...my pumpkin plant was looking great after the borer surgery in July, then last night it looked a bit weak. More evidence of borers. More surgery removing 3 more of the discusting creatures. This time up the stem about 2 to 3 feet. I hope this was all of them. The old surgery slit has healed up nicely so I used the same method after my work last night.

In spite of this, it has several male flowers, hopefully some female flowers will show up when it starts to cool off here in Austin. It is still 100+

I saw one of the vine borer wasps the other day in my garden. At first I thought it was a big bee and was a bit afraid of it but then I remembered the picture of the borer wasp and took care of him very quickly. Between those things and stink bugs I am close to losing my mind and giving up on this whole organic gardening hobby :(

I cut out 5 more borers and used the same string/truss/glue method. This thing is starting to look like Frankinstein. Now a pumpkin has been growing....except it looks like a squash...Grr! A mixup at the garden store?