RE: Weird
OOPS.
Well David, I hope you benefited from my message and felt no offence, as
I thought you were a different David, and I really have no idea what
your knowledge level is in the topic of pollination. I have some
explaining to do to everybody.
I have a friend who is a first year grower on the Isle of Wight. His
name is David, and he is also a bee keeper. I sent him a bunch of
seeds, and we often go back and forth with long messages like the last
one I posted. I thought the last message was a personal message from
him, so I gave him every detail I had in my brain on pollination. It
wasn't until I saw that I had made a Hort posting that I realized the
question was not personal correspondence, I was talking to a different
David, and that I just sent a message to 300+ people. You see, I saw
the words "David" and "England" and just went to town. Next time I'll
have to read more carefully.
How nice for me. Since I am a second year grower, I just took myself to
school unwittingly.
Anybody care to help me perfect my pollination methodology, please? *:-0
Toby
mr-sprout@sbcglobal.net
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of Toby
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 4:03 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: RE: Weird
David,
It sounds like you have an EXCELLENT patch growing! Is there any way
you can send a picture via email? I would love to see those vines!
To answer your question, Yes, save the males, but use only once. Many
growers clip off all of the male flowers they have and save them in the
fridge in a vase. Here is the pollination method many use...
Watch your male flowers, they shouldn't be allowed to open, but must be
allowed to mature on the vine. The evening before they look like they
will open, tie a string around the tips to keep them closed. The next
morning, clip them off leaving as long a stem as possible, and
immediately put them in water in the fridge. Use a different vase for
each plant, and keep the vases labeled so you know which flowers came
from which plants.
When the female flowers look like they are about to open, do the same
thing... tie them up the night before, and in the morning, visit them
with a stamen in hand (its easier if you rip off the petals of the
male). Open the female, rub the stamen around as good as you can, then
tie the female petals closed.
This way you can completely control the pollination process. Not only
will you know who the parents are, you have arranged the marriage, and
left no opportunity for fornicating via honeybee or what-have-you. This
gives you lots of flexibility if you only have a few males. You can
save them for a later time, or, if you don't have any males at all on
one plant, you can make sure the females still get pollinated by using
males from another plant.
The other thing that is good about controlling the pollination process
is that other Atlantic Giant growers will want to trade seeds with you
because you will have pumpkins with a traceable lineage. Pedigree
pumpkins! Hope you find this helpful.
One last thought. I learned something yesterday that answered a few
questions I had about this procedure. The females will only receive
pollen during the first few hours of the morning that their flowers
open. By noon they will not take pollen. A non-pollinated female will
grow to the size of a football (soccer ball, whatever), then the plant
will abort the fruit. So when you pollinate, always do it early on the
morning you think the female will open.
One more last though. Ease off on your nitrogen in your fertilization
program. It discourages fruit from setting for some reason.
Last last thought. A lot of people put ice all around the female during
the pollination. It seems that fruit doesn't like to set when its warm,
and there is too much circulation within the vine. Not sure why, but I
think if you pollinate in the morning you shouldn't have much trouble
anyway.
Take care!
Toby
mr-sprout@sbcglobal.net
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of david
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 3:09 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: Weird
Hi from England
I have 4 plants on the go, Colbert, Reiss, Bhaskaran and Troy all have
vines
over 14 feet with multiple roots but I have the situation whereby there
are
very few male flowers.
Question: can I save the males and use later and more than once.
David
Southampton
England
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