Blossom End Rot?

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DCarrington Riverview, NB(Zone 5b) Aug 16, 2005

I have a friend who has a pumpkin plant. He said mine look awesome compared to his. (mine look like their from the Amazon Jungle, the leaves are huge and the flowers are the size of a dinner plate)

Anyway.....he said, "see how your little pumpkins are green with the flower on the end of it? mine are yellow right from the beginning and then they turn to, like, mush, and fall off."

I told him it sounded like "Blossom End Rot" but wasn't sure. I asked him if he watered it and he said all the time.

I suspect he's watered it too much and so I told him to stop watering it for a while and see if it makes a difference. I've never watered mine. I stuck the seeds in, and left it alone.

So, I guess, what I'd like to know, Does this sound right? Could it be blossom end rot? Or is it something else?

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adkgardener Bloomingdale, NY(Zone 4a) Aug 16, 2005

Blossom end rot, as far as I know, is a problem with tomatoes, peppers & eggplant and is caused by a calcium deficiency.

Sounds to me like your friend is talking about female flowers that are unpollinated. If they don't get pollinated. which is often the case with the first flowers early in the season, they do exactly as he described, they turn yellow and fall off. Some also go unpollinated later in the season after some fruit has set.

Remember, there are male and female flowers. The female flowers are the ones that look like flowers atop little pumpkins.

Wayne

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DCarrington Riverview, NB(Zone 5b) Aug 16, 2005

Thank you. I passed the informaion on.

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Sequee Carmel, NY(Zone 6b) Aug 16, 2005

Great information, thanks! I was in panic mode 'cause so many are falling off. I'm told the plant knows best - if it has produced more babies than it can nourish, it will abort some. Is this true? (Seems to make sense, but then - I'm quite gullible!)

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DrDoolotz Oxford, NS(Zone 5b) Aug 16, 2005

That same thing happened with all my melon plants. Each plant seemed to be able to support about 2 melons at a time, and any that got pollinated beyond that got slightly larger, then turned yellow and fell off. The ones that don't get pollinated never really swell at all, they just turn yellow and fall off. This also happened with my zucchini and pattypan squash. I think that the plant is quite marvellous that it can figure out how many fruits it can support and then not let others begin to develop. The plant that actually had its melons ripen already is still growing and producing flowers but I haven't seen any start to ripen so maybe it doesn't keep going.

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