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Buffalo, New York

i dont undertand the whole pollianting thing. i pollinated some of my females the other day and tied them iwth a twist tie which i will leave on for a couple days....but what is the purpose of tieing them up afterwards?

to prevent bees from getting in, why dont you want bees to get in the female after you hand pollinate them?

7/15/2007 12:09:33 PM

hamilton,Ontario

Most want the genetics right for future years....They want to know the exact cross (s) of what was made...they dont want something else in the pollen mix....

7/15/2007 12:50:28 PM

Buffalo, New York

so basically if someone is only growing one plant and clips a male off the plant and pollinates a female on the same plant, you dont have to tie her up?

7/15/2007 1:26:43 PM

hamilton,Ontario

that is up to the person growing...when bees get at the plant it is called an open pollination if you have a male on a plant that you pollinate with the same plant female that is called a self pollination which you still may decide to close to ensure no other pollination gets in there....Also there is the cross pollination which is when you want to pollinate 2 different pumkins....if you dont tie it shut you cant guarentee the cross or the self...If not we just call it an "open" .........U see what the main drive here is that many growers want to ensure the cross..if we had a JER579 that grew a 3000 lbs pkin and we had a eng00 that grew a 3001 lbs pumpkin we dont want a may not want to pollinate it with a Northshore50lbs pumpkin from last year...It all depends on what a grower wants........at least thats how I see it

7/15/2007 1:41:42 PM

Buffalo, New York

interesting......thanks.....

7/15/2007 2:52:06 PM

Lombard, IL

I can actually help on this question! Pumpkins can also cross pollinate with other squashes. You want to make sure that doesn't happen.

7/16/2007 9:07:21 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

The atlantic giant pumpkin will cross pollinate with Prizewinners, Big Max or other C. maxima pumpkin varieties but not regular squash/ zuccinni or field pumpkins. Bees can travel up to 10 miles I believe so you should be sure there aren't any of these plants around for a 20 mile diameter.

7/16/2007 1:30:57 PM