Re: Pollination Time

I like tall Dixie cups. Al Eaton told us about it several years back. Cuddle the top of the blossom together in one hand and slip the dixie cup over with the other hand. A perfect fit. 
Easy as pumpkin pie!


On Jun 27, 2009, at 9:52 AM, Bart Toftness wrote:
There are two things to consider when deciding how to protect the females from bees. I firmly believe the bees are attracted to the flowers by the color(actually UV 'color') so if they can't 'see' them they can't find them. If you cover them with something like stocking then they can still find them so you need to be sure the covering is closed to physically keep them out. I use brown paper lunch bags. easy on , easy off and have never found a bee inside...NEVER. The instant I remove the bag to do the deed they come in bunches and it can be challenging to keep them out while pollinating. On rainy days I cover the paper bag with plastic bags to keep them dry. 


Bart

Steve Haberman wrote:
I pollinated my first female today. She is on my longest main vine about 18 feet from the base. I am letting my other mains go a little longer as it is only June 27. The plant that I pollinated today is the largest, healthiest plant I have ever had! I don't know exactly why it is going nuts but i will take it. I am going to spray tomorrow even though I haven't seen ANY insects 
yet. I have some other varieties of squash nearby so I covered the
pollinated blossom with a plastic coffee can. Any other suggestions on how to cover these and prevent gourds? Would a stocking work? My field pumpkins self pollinate (bees) but I always manually pollinate my squash and AG's to 
prevent gourds.
Steve Haberman
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