Hi Alexandra,
I'm doing the same thing, growing pumpkins with the kids :)
This is my first year with pumpkins, so I'm by no means an expert, but if you are not flowering its possible you aren't using the right fertilizer or enough fertilizer. To encourage flowering, find a fertilizer that is low in nitrogen, higher in phosphorus, something like 5-10-5.

oh and if you have trouble with pollination again, try hand pollinating. It is pretty easy with pumpkins!

Hi!
Like Stephanie said above, Nitrogen encourages vine and leaf growth in pumpkins (Which is great in the beginning, but not so good when you want flowers), so find a fertilizer that doesn't have much, if you're going to fertilize. I don't know how many plants or how many flowers you're getting per day, but I have four pumpkin plants and am currently getting 4-6 flowers/day. (Sometimes more, if I'm lucky!)
It also depends on when you planted them. If they just started to flower recently, more and more flowers will appear as time goes on.

Good luck with your pumpkins!

I haven't fertilized at all. The last time we did this we have flowers beyond belief, but I didn't know that we had a bee issue so none pollinated. Now, I know that and I had planned to hand pollinate, but no flowers to do so. I see buds, so I am hoping that some will start to bloom. Yesterday we had one female and 0 males. Otherwise, no flowers. Admittedly, we were out of town for a week, so I have no idea what we missed.

Should I cut the plant back to encourage flower growth or just let it continue to get longer and hope for the best.

I really am just doing this with my three-year-old, so if we get even one pumpkin I will consider this a success!

I don't know if pruning it back would be helpful or not. It would definitely get you side shoots. Hopefully somebody more seasoned at growing pumpkins will hop on here and tell you.

In the meantime, I would definitely give it some fertilizer with low nitrogen and high phos - sounds like you have a nice sturdy vine going just need to boost bloom growth.

You should be getting lots of males before the first female shows up. You did say you were out of town, have you noticed any of the old discarded male blooms lying around base of plant? Or do you see any of these stumpy things? That would indicate if it was blooming while you were gone.

I have 5 kids btw and I better get 5 pumpkins or I'm in trouble ;)

good evening!!!
i am not an expert, but i love to raise pumpkins, the uglier the better! i do not need to fertilize, my soil here seems to be very nitrogen rich. as said above, you will have MANY male flowers, and a few females. do you have more than one plant? i try to have at the very least two of each kind three is best for cross pollination...earwigs, ants, natts, flies wasps also pollinate. as said above you can hand pollinate, be sure that the dew has dried, be sure the sun has dried the pollen. snip the male flower or use a q-tip then you know you have lots of yellow pollen. i do not clip vines until i see that the female is growing, then i clip about 6 inches from the growth, if i have more that one vine that is. i measure my pumpkins, and good growth is 1/4 inch a day. when they start to orange up, they stop growth. good luck!!!! pictire is one of my female peanut pumpkins....

Not to hijack this post but I have a question for Slimfatty - you snip your main vine 6" past pumpkin that is growing? Do you just grow one pumpkin per vine then?

I planted a bunch of pumpkin plants, thinking my garden bed was enormous. Apparently, it's not ;) So they're starting to pour out onto lawn, which is fine...to a point. I did some research on pruning and the recommendation I got was 10 FEET past the last pumpkin! There goes the whole yard, lol. Anyhow, 6 inches past is sounding a lot better that 10 feet, want to be sure I'm understanding properly. Thank you for your advice!

OH goodness!!!! I am sorry to have confused you!!!! NO NO i grow as many as i wish to, what i mean to say IS, i too have a limited size garden for the vast vines that a pumpkin puts out, i watch and choose, when a vine has two fruit, i snip the single vine 6 inch past. that conserves growth energy. i also (train) the vines that run out into into my yard, with stakes, gently turn and run them back where i want them to be, i have even run them up and onto the shed, just so they have support...i have a pic of my vines, after i have my 8 pumpkins, i clip any new runners that the mother plant pops out, dose that help clarify better??

Yes indeed, thanks! This is my first year with pumpkins so I have 0 experience with pruning them - your advice is much appreciated :)