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northcentral PA

do you guys pollinate the flowers yourselves (by cutting off a flower and rubbing it on another flower or do you let the insects do their thing? Please tell me how to pollinate a punkin flower. thanx

6/5/2002 9:56:06 PM

Cologne / Germany

Look in the how-to section and read the article about hand-pollinating a flower.

6/6/2002 5:40:22 AM

canal winchester ohio

Here is how I pollinate them, it works very well.
Get yourself a few of the zip-loc throw away food tubs ( the small ones). Once you start getting males to bloom take each days crop of fresh blooms & peel off all the petals to expose the pollen. Taking a toothpick "carefully" scrape all the pollen off into one of the tubs. Put all of that days males into the same tub, seal it & date it to know how old it is & place it in the 'fridge. Now if the morning the female opens & you don't have any males open the same day you can get out a tub of your freshest pollen & taking a small artist brush you can dip it into the pollen & then brush it over the newly opened female.
I've done this many times & it works well..........Paul

6/6/2002 8:55:26 AM

Cologne / Germany

Thanks for that Paul. It answers my question from general discussion if male polen can be preserved.

6/6/2002 9:35:13 AM

Ga.

A question,,if you have 5 males from the same plant,,are all 5 males gonna have the exact gene pool,,or will there be a varience???

6/6/2002 12:11:49 PM

Utah

the comparison is not exact but think of pumpkins
as people. From two parents there can be lots of
children and there variation between them but in
general they will have many similar traits.

so to answer your question there is variance from
pollen grain to pollen grain- and therefor flower
to flower.
a pollen grain is like a single sperm-
or 1/2 of a child. each individual one is different
but they all carry similar traits.

6/6/2002 12:43:48 PM

Paul: Are you saying, taking pollen off all males that
day or keeping each plant's males in different zip-loc bag's ????? Bill

6/6/2002 6:37:51 PM

First one would have to be called OPEN pollinated if I'm reading your post right. Correct me if I'm off base. Bill

6/6/2002 6:41:48 PM

canal winchester ohio

Bill, I keep all the males from the same day in the same container & I will mark the lid like this.
900 Lyons,7-5-02,6 males.

6/7/2002 7:43:36 AM

Paul: Are all the males off the 900 Lyons or 900 Lyons plus others that day whom have bloomed. ???? Still not getting picture correct. Mind maybe just not working right ????

6/7/2002 7:51:09 PM

canal winchester ohio

LOL..Using the 900 as a example if I mark the container 900 Lyons,7-5-02,6 males. Then all the pollen in that container came from males off the 900 lyons on 7-5-02. I have a 744 Welty going at my place right now & I would like to cross it with Glen's 455.5. Well my brother has a 455.5 growing at his place ( 15 miles away), I'll have him collect the pollen in the above mentioned way & store it in the fridge. Then I'll go down to his place with a igloo cooler & bring them back to my place to pollinate the 744. It's a good idea for those who can't grow more than 1 plant but want to cross pollinate & has another grower around them.......Paul

6/7/2002 8:55:03 PM

Western Pa.

One thing to note here:

Be sure to cover BOTH male and female blooms a day or two before they open. (I wrap them in cheesecloth). This is the ONLY way to make sure that your cross is pure and doesn't contain pollen brought in from another source(or pumpkin plant) by bees or insects.

6/8/2002 6:55:51 AM