hi! My kids and I are growing pumpkins for the first time this year, also for Halloween :) You may want to check out another thread on here with someone in a similar situation, female flowers falling off. The consensus there seems to be the same, that the plants are young/small and not quite ready to fruit. Again, this is my first year, but I've heard phosphorus as well - specifically to do nitrogen at first, then switch to low-nitrogen/high phosphorus when plants start to flower. I started a thread on the forum asking for advice on fertilizer and a couple of folks have responded there if you want to take a peek. Best of luck to us both!!

Weirdtrev wrote: "Most of your female flowers will not form fruit. Some will open and fail to get pollinated, others will shrivel turn yellow and never open. But a few will make it. Also you should leave your pumpkins alone after you pollinate them. The way image B looks is completely normal. The flower hangs on for a little while but eventually rots away. Do NOT attempt to take the flower off because you think it looks bad just let the pumpkin do what it wants. Just give it some time and all will be fine." When I hand pollinate for seed I usually do a good many fruit because one never knows when a fruit will abort, even, sometimes, after it begins to grow a bit. Surely this is along the order of those sayings like, "A watched pot is slow to boil...." Seems the more we want those squash to mature, the more it SEEMS that they don't. Yet, if we're not paying much attention, then they produce and mature very well! The difference is mainly in our perception. George

Hello all, I have been having the same issues. Let me recount my story for you. I planted zucchini eight ball squash, yellow crooked neck squash, and butternut squash. They were all doing awesome and producing a lot of fruit. Then the snails arrived. They were eating all my fruit so I bought some natria slug and snail killer. Worked like a charm. I was watering the plant for 10 minutes 2 times a day, in the morning and in the evening. This brought out the white mold on the leaves. I tried using a milk and water mixture to spray the leaves as well as cutting off all the infected leaves. This kind of worked, but I have been battling it for 2 months, but not seriously trying. I cut the watering back to 1 time a day in the morning for 10 minutes. Recently I have switched it to 3 times a week for 10 minutes. But what I have noticed is that the new leaves yellow and quickly turn brown and die. What would be causing this? I have checked for vine borers by slitting open some leaf stems but I found nothing. Here are some more pictures. Whole garden New green leaves, yellow on the outside and dead leaves around the plant Lemon cucumber plants. Started out great and now leaves started yellowing and just now they are starting to brown Heres is a little bug hat I've seen around my plants...it looks like a discolored lady bug. Anything to worry about? Thanks! This post was edited by paperslammer on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 11:27

Squash Bugs! Arch nemesis of all pumpkin growers. Could tell from the first picture. They don't eat the leaves but suck the moisture from them. The little bugs are nymphs. They will get much bigger I am afraid. The plants look pretty far gone. The eggs can be removed with duct tape, get every one! To kill the squash bugs I make a simple solution of water and Dawn dish soap. Other soaps do work I hear, this is just what I had and used. Fill a spray bottle with water then add some Dawn. I usually use a 1ý gallon pump sprayer and put about 2T soap in and just stir it around enough to mix. You don't want bubbles like dish water. It should look light/pale blue. Set the prayer somewhere between spray and stream. Now go and spray directly on the bugs. As you found out squash bugs like to hide under the leaves so look under each one. Kill as many as you can find. They like to come out more in the evening. The soap clogs up their exoskeleton so they cannot breathe. They will die with in a minute or two. Come out in the evening, they will come out and hang around your pumpkins. At the end of the season I leave one vine and undesired pumpkin or squash and they will come every evening to the fruit and you can spray them then. Leave it until they quit coming. Squash bugs will over winter in the soil, so get as many as possible. Hate those squash bugs!!!