Update

Those of you in the blogosphere who also happen to be facebook friends already know that our pumpkins were stricken with powdery mildew. I tried to fight it off with fungicide but it didn't seem to help as much as the (finally) hot dry weather we've had the last week or so. It rained 20 days in June which was great for the roots but terrible for the leaves. In the end, all three plants were affected....and I'd say about 1/2 the total foliage. I ended up removing some of the worst leaves leaving a gaping hole in one plant....I think at this point I'm just going to have to let nature take its course.

There are still A LOT of male flowers blooming everyday and I've even seen 8 to 10 teeny tiny female buds. Of course there haven't been a lot of bees (fungicide /insecticide may have discouraged them from stopping by) and I'm not sure how the loss of soooo many leaves will affect the plants long term (shade, photosynthesis that kind of thing). Anyway, here are some pictures from today, July 2nd.

You can see they've grown a lot since we planted in May.

The little 'Howden Pumpkin' tag as a reference point.

Here is the big bare spot after I cut some leaves. You can see how the mildew is still killing a few off. Do you see the leaf that is yellow with black crispy stuff around the edge?

Here is how the mildew looks early on....

One of many many many male flowers that open every morning.

Here is what a male flower bud looks like. They are much larger than the females, bloom first, and are missing the little 'swelling' that the females have.

Here is a female. Not a great picture because they are still so small. See the round thing at the base of the flower? THAT is what becomes the pumpkin! Well....it has the potential anyway.....I still need this little gal to grow, bloom, be pollinated, grow again, ripen, and be harvested.....THEN it will be a pumpkin....

On a side note....a family of chipmunks have moved in about 6 inches from where I need to turn the hose off and on. They are NOT happy about it.