Re: Pollen Count
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Pollen Count
- From: C*@aol.com
- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 17:26:36 EDT
Greetings!
I cringe when I read of growers who use multiple males to pollinate their
females or just "allow the bees to do it". I take a more scientific approach,
that is, I prefer to control the crosses carefully.
I am not saying my field was a sterile lab experiment, but I had plenty of
plants in bloom and always plenty more males than females. I used one male
stamen per female flower. The blossom was labeled and dated, then tied closed
with a piece of string. Pollination was done in the early AM hours. Records
were documented each day as progress was noted.
I know open pollinations occur in nature, I just choose to do selective
breeding. I am big into record keeping and data analysis. Open pollinations
leave question marks as to heritage and make it virtually impossible to see
trends from a hereditary standpoint. If you're growing for fun, open
pollinations are OK. If you're in it for scientific, research or competitive
purposes, then you'll want to take the textbook approach. It's a little more
work, but well worth the effort.
Barb
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