After much puzzlement and discussion in my local gardening group, I was encouraged to post picture of my rogue pumpkin blossom here. This pumpkin vine has been misbehaving pretty much from the beginning. 9 female blossoms have opened, yet not one single male blossom has matured to the point where it is ready to pollinate. Two days ago, the blossom in question made its appearance. Note the 4 marble sized nodules below and surrounding the stigma. Each time I gently touched the blossom in order to get a better picture, white, sesame like seeds literally spewed forth from behind the green nodules. I have circulated these pictures locally amongst gardeners and farmers with decades of experience and not one had an answer for me. Other locals are not having any issues with pollination or vine development. Despite the weather, both my garden mentors have healthy vines with fruit already set. Your questions, input, and insight are much appreciated. Apologies for the crappy picture - Ipod not the greatest ;) I am in hardiness zone 8, Sunshine Coast. South West facing with 8 - 10 hours max of direct sunlight. This starter was purchased from Quality Foods and is of the Sugar Jack variety.
A second blossom opened this morning with 1 similar looking nodule and a smaller, less developed nodule. May I ask what causes this type of mutation, ie. environmental exposures to toxins, radiation, poor quality soil, etc ? Or is it a result of some strange genetic variant known to happen within this particular variety ? Should I report it to the grower and would it be wise to destroy the vine, to prevent potential cross pollination with my healthy vine of a different variety ? Many thanks for your reply.
It's likely caused by the selection / hybridization process. Nothing to worry about. Sometimes when positive traits are selected for (e.g., large fruit production), negative traits can occur (e.g., early infertile or aborted fruit production) as the genetic mechanisms that generally suppress the negative traits are bypassed.
