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Waterloo, Nebraska

I have one female flower that will hopefully open soon. I only have one male flower open. The female is about 8 feet out. Should I wait for a female further out or let this one stay? I am reluctant to remove her because last year only one seedling survived, and it only produced one female. That one was a wierd mutant looking thing that withered and died. Also, I have not seen any bees yet this year. We had tons of them last year. Should I hand pollinate, or do you think the bees will return?

Last year was a disaster. Everything failed. This year the plants look good. I had a crisis the other day with bugs. I panicked because I could not get on the message board. I sprayed seven on the plants, and that crisis is over. It hailed yesterday, but God must have been looking out for my plants because they do not have a mark on them. Maybe this will be my year.

Any help on the pollination questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jody

6/25/2006 12:04:07 PM

ordinary,VA

Jody do have a cross that you want to make?
are you going to open pollinate.
if you are going to open pollinate just leave the female alone let the bees do there job.
you can give the bees a helping hand by getting up early aroud 5 or 6 taking a male flower that has just open and hand pollinate the female flower.
if you want to hand polinate and keep the bees out send me a email.

6/25/2006 12:24:39 PM

Waterloo, Nebraska

I would prefer that the plant not be pollinated by one of it's own flowers. I have two other plants, but they do not have any male flowers out. I guess I may have to settle for it being pollinated by one of it's own flowers. I am also worried that I have not seen many bees this year.

6/25/2006 12:31:18 PM

Nh

in my expieriance of three whole years, one way or another something got pollinated and grew into a pumpkin. i have hand pollinated and just left them. if you have a male and female open and it seems like the male flower hasnt been cleaned out of its pollen, than make the match!

6/26/2006 5:55:49 PM