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Los Angeles, CA

I have been going outside each morning to hand pollinate (dodging bees) and things "seem" to be working. (I'm putting a frozen water bottle next to the females after pollination). This morning, when I cut the male to pollinate, THREE bees flew out of nowhere and landed on the male in my hand! (I dropped the flower and ran back into the house).

I chickened out at this point, (am I a bad punkin farmer?) I figured if they were so darned determined to get at the flowers, I oughtta let em.

Can I leave it to the bees? I don't want to get stung!

7/24/2002 11:29:13 AM

South Hill, Virginia

If you only have one plant blooming or you don't care to know what the genetic cross is then I would just let the bees do it. I've only hand pollinated a few females this season and let the bees do the rest (only had one plant blooming at the time anyway). Whenever I picked a male it was stuffed full of bees and had very little pollen left. Some of those suckers refuse to get out too. I peel the petals off and some of them are still there doing their thing.

7/24/2002 12:19:08 PM

Mineral Virginia

Also, depending on the type of bees on the west coast, east coast bees are pretty tame. I was getting to the point where I just pulled the male and flicked the sides of it until he/they fell out. Only paper wasps, hornets etc seem to have an axe to grind and may turn on you. But they don't gather pollen anyway. Honey and Bumble bees just fly off.

7/24/2002 1:22:13 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Funnydad - you're a brave one! My seeds all came from Don Langevin (the Giant Pumpkin guy - loved his books - figured I'd love his seeds!) So I think all 3 that I have growing are from the same genetics.

7/24/2002 2:13:00 PM