-----Original Message-----
From:
Giant Veggies <g*@shaw.ca>
To:
p*@hort.net <p*@hort.net>
Date: 06
July 2002 06:49
Subject: Re: Hard Question
Dave:
I think your the first one that grows giant
pumpkins that I have heard ask this question.
It is quite difficult to explain but I will try
to keep it simple, by the way from what I understand irraddiated pollen is
just now being looked at in melons (Watermelon), some root crops (onions),
squash etc.
It is quite new about ten years and was first
done in France on flax, and has since been used in corn, coca, coffee beans,
potatoes, tomatoes and a few others.
Basically what it is, is the use of exotic or
alien pollen to develop a plant. The irradiated (x-rayed) pollen is
introduced to the host plant (usually by spray) and the cellular division of
the ovule takes place without the use of another like-parent. Even though
the pollen is different and is inactive due to irradition it still is
capable of cellular division which is what happens when you introduce say
male pollen of a pumpkin to a female pumpkin flower.
So basically you would take and spray your
female's on your pumpkin and bang you got yourself a fertilized pumpkin,
pinch off all the males you don't need them.
Now before I get bombarded with e-mails I know
of no such spray available for punkins, squash, melons etc... (yet) they are
still working on these variety's of Veggies.
One small down fall, the plants are being
developed artificially by only a single set of chromosomes instead of
2 sets (half from the mother, half from the father) and do not form
seeds and there for no offspring. So you will get a seedless
pumpkin.
With most growers growing for size from
different crosses this would not be possible as would saving seed from say
an Emmons to grow next year, another big down fall in giant punkin
growing.
However if you were a farmer, growing for the
table, or growing Giant Tomatoes it is almost 99.9% guaranteed pollination.
Yes I use this for Giant Tomatoes as I grow
seperate plants for seed for next year and only spray the plants that I
am just growing giants for. This way when I see a blossom like is shown in
my growers diary on Big Pumpkins http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=4512 (tomato
entry) I spray it and bang there she grows. By the way the sepals as
shown are almost 4" across and when the mater is fully grown it is
guesstimated to have a whopping 14" middle measurement. This
is why I use the stuff no guessing with if it will pollinate.
Hoped this Helped,
TTYL
Ernie
Giant Veggies
