How to Know If a Pumpkin Flower Has Been Pollinated

Male Flower

• Like its female counterpart, the male pumpkin flower is a bright yellow, 4 to 5-inch diameter bloom. When the pumpkin vine first yields blossoms, it is quite likely that they all will be male. This first round of flowering attracts pollinating bees to the pumpkin patch. The male flower is attached directly to the vine stalk with no visible budding pumpkin.

Female Flower

• At the base of the female flower is a small swelling that eventually will become the pumpkin if the female flower is pollinated. The female flower blooms for only a single day and then dies off. If the bottom bulge also dies off, the flower has not been pollinated.

Pollination

• Pollination occurs most typically when bees or other insects gather pollen from a male flower and brush it fully upon the segments of the female stigma. Because the female flower may be open for only a 4-hour period in a single day, it is quite possible for females to miss their limited chance at pollination.

Hand Pollination

• Pumpkin growers often do not rely on the whims of nature and a diminishing bee population to pollinate their crops. Instead, they force pollination by extracting pollen from male flowers and brushing it on female flowers. If successful, the female flower still dies off, but the small bulge that was at the flower's base begins to grow into a baby pumpkin.