newby pumpkin grower HELP

I read a posting here a few days ago and can't locate it now. I have a pumpkin plant growing. My day care kids and I got real excited when it got 40+ flowers. The flowers have all died off and we have only one pumpkin growing on the huge vine. What I saw on here was something about female and male flowers on the vines? What's the story and how can I tell the difference? Is this the only pumpkin I can hope to get????

Female flowers have a small pumpkin behind them, males just have straight stems. The large pumpkins usually set one or two fruits at a time. The small cultivars set more. There are many more male than female blossoms.

Ok, I went out and looked and took a few pictures. I think I see a difference. In this picture it looks to me like the older flower was probably male and the one not quiet open is female. Is that right?

Here is the one pumpkin I do have:

And here is the whole plant. It is just one single plant. It started growing in my side flower bed and I moved it out back. The plant was an accident-came up where we had a set our Jack-O-Lanterns last year. LOL Any tips you can give me would be greatly appriciated. When it comes to vegetables, I have no clue what I am doing. :)

This message was edited Jul 30, 2007 8:47 AM

Just let them do their thing. They usually do better on their own then they do when you fuss over them. Both of flowers in the picture are male. I don't have a pumkin picture but here is a female squash bloom.

SJ -- Pretty nice fingernails for someone who digs in the garden ~ LOL!

I put in my first pumpkins this year. Mixed them in with my corn, about 6 plants I think. They are going EVERYWHERE...with lots of blossoms, but now I will have to inspect and see if I have females.....didn't notice any yet. Maybe they must come later?

SueGee1950: Thanks for your compliment! LOL
I think next year I will start out planting the pumpkins intentionally and will plant a few more vines. I guess my little charges will just have to have store bought pumpkins this year. Now who to give the one lonely pumpkin to?????????

Still just the one pumpkin. Oh well, there is always next year. I will do things differently then!! Here is an update of my pumpkin:

I planted about 9 pumpkin plants with my corn. They took over the side yard and it looked like I was going to have a bumper crop with tons of flowers. However, I guess they were all female flowers, because I only have have one fruited pumkin growing plus a new baby one starting. To top it off, my corn was a bust. The ears are very small and not getting any bigger. That was the only area I did not fertilize, which may be the problem. Disappointing, but I may get a decent pumpkin out of that one. It looks very similar to SJ's.

Regarding above note, I meant, "I guess they are all MALE flowers, becuase I only have one fruited pumpkin....." I went out to check today, and to my dismay, the bottom of my ONE pumpkin is ROTTING. So sad.....Too much grass grown under vines that went all over the yard, holding moisture I guess....We stopped mowing when we got close to the jungle of vines and the grass filled in all around. Next year, I may put lots of mulch around the outside of my planting beds so the vines can run around in the yard and not have grass growing around them -- unless, of course, I get busy and build some nice vertical trellises for all my viney plants.

So the yellow flowers are useless? Anyone have pictures of what will eventually turn into pumpkins?

Not useless. Many folks dip the male blossoms in batter and fry them. Some claim the blossoms are better than the squash/pumpkins.