Re: lumina/casper cross?


pumpkins@mallorn.com wrote:
> 
> DILEMMA; I'm going to plant 2 hills of AGs this year, but one of my boys wants a
>    couple of Lumina and/or Casper (white) pumpkin plants. Will these cross with
>    AGs? Should I  plan for each variety to be planted  on opposite ends of the garden?
>    There would then be about 100 feet between the two. Do I have any thing to
>    worry about since I'm planning on the AGs flowering weeks ahead of the whites??
> 
  I have been crossing plants for 58 years. Since Cucurbits have
imperfect flowers, you know the pollen comes from somewhere by insect.
The wild pollen will not affect the fruit color and traits but the seeds
are useless. You may end up with a muskmelon that tastes like cucumber
if you plant the seeds. 
  You can avoid this by stapling a paper bag over the flower the
afternoon before it opens. Then remove the bag and apply pollen from a
different plant of the same variety. I use pooled pollen when possible.
A pool is pollen from several plants of the same variety. Then reapply
the paper bag. In my corn work I have always used ordinary grocery bags
as most are waterproof glued. I use a couple thousand bags per year. 
  If I had an open pollen line of corn and wanted to maintain it. I
would pick the best plants, pool their pollen, and apply it to the silks
which had been bagged to prevent fertilization. 
  Applying pollen from a plant to the same plant is inbreeding and in
corn after 2 years, the plants are barely able to produce a tiny ear.
Not so if you sib as above. I learned that about 1946. I assume
inbreeding will be a problem in Pumpkins also. 
-- 
Harold Eddleman Ph.D. Microbiologist.       i*@disknet.com 
Location: Palmyra IN USA; 36 kilometers west of Louisville, Kentucky
http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab/b032z.htm



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