'Hi, got a big pumpkin plant in my allotment....
'
Noticed a couple of baby pumpkins on there a couple of weeks ago, but they seem to have disapeared,

Anyway, it's getting huge, the plant, and has lots of flowering sites on it, lots of flowers....

I'm only growing it as I want to ensure we get one large pumpkin for my son for Halloween...

How do I do it? Pinch off the flowers? Wait for fruits to form and pinch off all but one? Is that too risky, should I leave 2 or 3 on.?

I see people putting old carpet below the fruits, this is to stop the rot I guess..?

Thanks,

Monk...x

I guess you would need to pinch off the lead growing shoot.
It's funny I saw this thread, as I was only last night moving our pumpkin from the pot in to one of the raised beds - was wondering myself if I should top it.
I did remove a lot of male flowers last night....I'm guessing they are like courgettes and squashes in that respect.

Hope you get a massive one mono

ATB

pinch out the growing top like you would on toms ,
leave 3-4 flowers to turn , choose the best one (or two) and get rid of the rest.

you can support em in tights or veg nets , or as you say use carpet or straw for them to rest on .

Watch out for those slugs tho.

I'm growing one for my 3 year od nephew, just wait untill you have one good fruit and then remove all of the other flowers as they appear, that way the plant will put all of its energy into the one fruit

remember to feed weekly too, i give mine maxi crop tomato feed

Thanks all, J, yeah my boy is 3, getting excited.....

Right so I should pinch off top now, it's about 10-12 ft long already....

Feed I dug in some blood/fish/bone around it, and will reapply soon....

Slugs we don't have a problem, our allotments are overrun by Muscovy Ducks who gobble up slugs and snails all day every day...it's great, but brassicas don't stand a chance, , as the ducks love them too.....

What happened to the 3 tiny pumpkins I saw a couple of weeks ago? Rotted?

Monk...x

yeah i had two or three small fruit appear but they fell off after getting tennis ball sized so i just left the plant to produce a few more and then culed them back to the biggest with the fattest stalk

mine is about football sized now and is sat on a piece of wood to stop it rotting on the wet soil

Grown a few big lumps in the garden in the past, never had to remove flowers though they seem to grow one or two medicine ball size ones and one big one. The best results we had were from a homemade manure /soil mix , 2-3 feeds of tomato type feed and plenty of water. We used to have a duck, i miss her slug eating capabilities.

sounds like an idea for next year...

Tried growing them last year,but the slugs beat me,the hollowed out the inside,when they were about the size of golf balls ,didn`t bother with them this year,don`t like them anyway.