What happened to my pumpkins?

[CwtchyBlueMama]

DS came home from nursery with a pumpkin seed & we have lovingly cared for it, & as a complete novice gardener it has grown quite large.

We moved it outside about 3 weeks ago in a really sunny spot,& it has produced some lovely flowers.

The first 2 were male flowers & the next 3 were female flowers,i know this from looking at pics on the internet,well i had to help them pollinate as the bumble bees round here seem to be on strike.

The female flowers closed up again & the ends kind of twisted round on themselves,the tiny pumpkins at the base of the flower looked really healthy & we were quite excited at the prospect of watching our pumpkins grow bigger.

Well i came home from work today & the flowers & tiny pumpkins have fell off the stem

What has happened to them?We do have more flowers ready to open up so i need to know if i have done anything wrong to kill my pumpkins.

This is quite common with young pumpkin fruits. It normally settles down in a couple of weeks as the weather is more regular/dependable.

As long as the leaves are still green and healthy looking and you are getting more fruit starting to develop I would not worry.

Watching this.
I've never had much luck with pumpkins and I'm DD's trying to grow yet another one this year and want to get it all right.

Paisley - what variety are you helping DDs to grow? Some are harder than others.

A good one for kids is Jack-be-Little. Really quick to start growing and lots of smaller adult hand sized pumpkins that make easy carving (they fit a tea light really well) and delicious eating.

Pumpkins are one of my favourites and I have 7 varieties on my allotment this year.

This one is that Atlantic Giant one (I thought it might stand a better chance of getting something). We're not too bothered about the tastiness of the flesh - it's more for fun.
There is a teeny weeny fruit on it already.

Well i have just been outside & had a good look over it & it does look really healthy,the leaves are nice & big & i have lots of little tendrils growing from the stems.

I have just bagged 3 male flowers to keep the pollen in good condition as i think i will have another female opening tomorrow or day after so i will self-pollinate them with my bagged male flowers.

So do you think it will settle down soon then?

There are about another 8 -10 buds yet to open so there is hope yet,fingers crossed for me!

Wow. Yours sounds pretty big already. I've only just put mine in the ground from a small pot.

I think i will plant some more seeds tomorrow just to give us a fighting chance at actually having 1 pumpkin this hallowwen.

My pumpkin plant last year just died so you're doing better than me! I've bought some seeds to try again this year. It says New England Pie on the packet so I'm guessing that is the variety - but I'm not sure
I'm new to this gardening business