945 N. Harp 5 segment stigma

So the 945 N. Harp pumpkin flower that I said was almost ready to open, did this morning as pictured above. That was really fast to open. So I got some male flowers off the same plant that had pollen and broke them off, stripped away the petals and used them like a little paintbrush to go all around the outside and also inside the stigma. Notice this stigma has 5 segments. Most big pumpkins have 4 or 5 segments and some have 6 but many of the six segment ones abort due to insufficient pollination.

female flower with male flowers around it after hand pollination

The next picture is of the flower after I hand pollinated it with the ‘spent’ stamens in front of it. I almost feel like smoking a cigarette!

The last picture is where I closed up the flower with a twistie tie so the bees won’t accidentally pollinate it with another pumpkin’s pollen. By controlling pollination, I try to control (somewhat) what the future seeds of the pumpkin will be but it won’t affect this year’s pumpkin and what it will look like only it’s seeds.

pollinated giant pumpkin flower closed with twistie

I will cross pollinate some of the other female blossoms with some of my other pumpkin plants to see what the next generation’s seeds will produce next year. But this one I self pollinated it. So on the same pumpkin plant you could have some pumpkins that were self pollinated and others that were pollinated with other pumpkin plants.