Re: *%&$#@ Moles! (Tomatillos)
- To: v*@eskimo.com
- Subject: Re: *%&$#@ Moles! (Tomatillos)
- From: P*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 03:34:42 EST
- Resent-Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 00:35:30 -0800
- Resent-From: veggie-list@eskimo.com
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- Resent-Sender: veggie-list-request@eskimo.com
In a message dated 12/21/98 11:59:32 PM Eastern Standard Time,
TWilli58@aol.com writes:
> I only had one tomatillo plant this summer. It grew well and flowered like
> crazy, but no fruit. The bees loved the flowers, so I left it in the
garden.
>
> After about three months, I started getting quite a few very small fruit.
>
> I posted a question on the gardens list about how I could have fruit with a
> single plant, and was told they ARE self polinating.
The evidence you offer serves to disprove the final statement. If your
tomatillo was self pollinating, it would not have needed bees, it would have
set fruit early, and the fruit would have been full sized.
Most likely the bees brought in a few grains of pollen from another plant
in the neighborhood. It would only take a few to get some fruit started, but
more grains of pollen would have fertilized more seeds, thereby giving a
larger fruit.
Another is that it could have had a limited amount of self fertility
(that's not the same as self pollination). Remember that self fertility and
self sterility are end points of a line, but most plants fall somewhere along
the line, not at the end points.
Pollinator@aol.com Dave Green Hemingway, SC USA
The Pollination Scene: http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
The Pollination Home Page: http://www.pollinator.com
Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
