winter squash/melon question

[emcap]

Okay, so this is my first year with a garden and I feel so silly......
Where do the pumpkins and squash form on the vines? My plants are going crazy and have tons of flowers but only very few blooms have the plumpness that I think will become a squash/pumpkin. A couple of the flowers with no plumpness have fallen off leaving just a stem behind, I don't see how that can form a pumpkin. Should I pinch off the other flowers so the plant concentrates on developing the ones with plumpness? Does that make sense. I think I've read about people pinching off all but the most promising flowers. We have TONS of flowers and I hate to think I'll only get 3 pumpkins or something.
Same question for melons.
I thought these things formed like tomatoes, but evidently not.
Thanks

[HerRoyallHighness]

They do form like tomatoes, that is to say, from the blossoms. When the blooms die, the fruit should begin to grow. Pinching off a couple of blooms might help because then the plant can put more energy toward the remaining ones. And give it some time. When I get impatient with my garden, it helps if I stay away from it for a couple of days. Then when I go to it again, I can be amazed at what has developed in my absence.

[HeatherAtHome]

Ummm... aren't there male and female flowers? So by pulling off all the male flowers there's nothing to fertilize the female flowers?

[limette]

The ones with the mini fruit are female flowers and the others are male flowers.

You need the males to pollinate the females and initially you'll have a ton of male flowers.

If the female does not get pollinated then they too will fall off and the mini fruit will shrivel up and die as well. If it is pollinated the mini fruit will get bigger until it's ready to harvest.

I doubt pinching any of the flowers off is going to make the plant decide to produce more of one gender than the other.

[kathymuggle]

I wouldn't pinch. There are male and female plants, and I just do not want to risk it. My 2 cents.

[emcap]

Thanks so much. That is so interesting about male and female flowers, I didn't know that! Oh, I have so much to learn. Well, at least I'm loving the process
Thanks so much everyone

[cschick]

Pumpkins (and other squash, I suspect) have male and female flowers on the same plant. For pumpkins, their male:female ratio is also pretty high, often I see about 20 male flowers to 1 female flower.

The female flowers need to be pollinated. Since they are a lot fewer in number and can be identified a few days before they bloom, I generally keep track of them and give them a helping hand the morning they bloom by supplying them some pollen from one of the male flowers. (This is in a home garden with a low number of pumpkin vines; if you're growing 10+ vines it's probably not necessary.)