Luffa gourds - still no female flowers

This is the first time I've grown luffa gourds in at least 20 years. My first try back in the late 80's resulted in not a single luffa fruit.

Well, it appears that exactly the same thing is happening again. I planted the seeds on the 1st of June, so the plants are now at about the 90 day point. They are strong and vigorous, on a lattice, and get plenty of light. The vines are about 12 to 15 feet long, and 6 or 7 plants survived from about 20 that I planted.

They have LOADS of male flowers, but the few immature female fruits that I have seen are very few. Although a few have grown in size a bit, they all end up turning yellow, shriveling up, and either just staying there, or falling off without flowering. It is almost as if the plants have decided "we are only going to make male flowers".

The seed packet said 100 days to maturity, so I would have thought I'd have some female fruits by now. From what I've read, the flowers are about all male at first, with a mix of male and female at mid season, and mostly female flowers towards the end.

Anyone have any ideas why this might be happening? I am at a different location than I was when this happened over 20 years ago.

I grew pumpkins and cukes this year and got 0 pumpkins and 1 cuke and nothing to maturity.

Cheryl Isaak wrote in news:C6BAEDFF.9FBCE% snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:

Boo has a pumpkin vine that has just started flowering. it's possible, but unlikely, he'll get a pumpkin for halloween if a female flower shows up in the next week. my bushel gourds didn't even come up until 3 weeks ago, even though i planted them in June. i was surprised to see them, actually. i figured the seeds just rotted with the rain & cold. lee

It's been a funky year here. Even my favorite farm stand seems "bare" compared to other years.

I'm not sure that is the problem - I see loads of bumble bees, wasps and ants in every flower.

The trouble is - there are no female flowers. I see the miniature version on the plant now and then, but they never seem to get big enough to actually flower. They get yellow, wither, and fall off. (including the fruit part)

Update: I applied bone meal, and also started snipping off the tips of growing vines as someone suggested. I'm happy to report that there are now nearly a dozen fruits on the plant, and one is about 8" long, and growing more than half an inch a day!