Hand-pollinating melons and squash

orflo · March 8, 2007

Hi,
I would like to share some hand-pollinating tricks I figured out the last few years. If you grow different varieties of melon in a small space, try this: take some drywall plugs, size:1centimeter, cut off the front part until you get a small "pipe" of about 13 millimeters, fill up the little hole that remains on the cut side (you could use a bit of tape or...), and there you have a long lasting device (years) that fits perfectly on male and female flowers. I always use the same plugs on the same varieties ,the plugs are easily marked.
If you have different varieties ofsquash that you want to save seed from, use old inner tyre of bicycles ,cut them into pieces about 10 centimeters long ,put a bit of tape on one side, or use the repair kit to glue this side, make a few lenghtwise cuts in the other,open hole, that makes it easier to pass the tyre over the flower, they fit perfectly over the qsuash flowers, they last for years, and it's a good way to recycle things. They are also easily marked or scratched so varieties and tyres won't get mixed up.
Orflo

Raymondo · March 15, 2007

Naming conventions beat me here. What's a dry wall plug? And once you have this device, what does it do? Please excuse the ignorance. Melons are one thing I'd like to be able to pollinate by hand but have found very difficult.

tessa · March 15, 2007

hi raymondo...i've had good luck hand pollinating my ha-ogens by picking a male blossom, plucking all its petals off, peeling back the bit of green at the bottom, until the whole thing threatens to fall to fall to pieces...then shoving it into the female blossom and just leaving it there.
so far...this has worked 100% of the time with the ha-ogens. 3/4 times with the minnesota midgets.

maryinoregon · March 23, 2007

I do what Tessa does. Works great.

bugsy · March 28, 2007

I don't understand what a drywall plug is either. perhaps some pics are in order. I hope mentioning GW isn't totally verboten because this thread is the best I've seen on the subject, by far. While bagging blossoms on tomatoes might be unnecessary early in the season, I wouldn't chance it on curcurbits.

March 8, 2007	#1
orflo Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: belgium Posts: 134	Hand-pollinating melons and squash Hi, I would like to share some hand-pollinating tricks I figured out the last few years. If you grow different varieties of melon in a small space, try this: take some drywall plugs, size:1centimeter, cut off the front part until you get a small "pipe" of about 13 millimeters, fill up the little hole that remains on the cut side (you could use a bit of tape or...), and there you have a long lasting device (years) that fits perfectly on male and female flowers. I always use the same plugs on the same varieties ,the plugs are easily marked. If you have different varieties ofsquash that you want to save seed from, use old inner tyre of bicycles ,cut them into pieces about 10 centimeters long ,put a bit of tape on one side, or use the repair kit to glue this side, make a few lenghtwise cuts in the other,open hole, that makes it easier to pass the tyre over the flower, they fit perfectly over the qsuash flowers, they last for years, and it's a good way to recycle things. They are also easily marked or scratched so varieties and tyres won't get mixed up. Orflo

March 15, 2007	#2
Raymondo Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Saumarez Ponds, NSW, Australia Posts: 946	Naming conventions beat me here. What's a dry wall plug? And once you have this device, what does it do? Please excuse the ignorance. Melons are one thing I'd like to be able to pollinate by hand but have found very difficult. __________________ Ray

March 23, 2007	#4
maryinoregon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Oregon Posts: 361	hand pollinating I do what Tessa does. Works great.

March 15, 2007	#3
tessa Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: perth, western australia Posts: 1,031	hi raymondo...i've had good luck hand pollinating my ha-ogens by picking a male blossom, plucking all its petals off, peeling back the bit of green at the bottom, until the whole thing threatens to fall to fall to pieces...then shoving it into the female blossom and just leaving it there. so far...this has worked 100% of the time with the ha-ogens. 3/4 times with the minnesota midgets.

March 28, 2007	#5
bugsy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Zone 10b Posts: 67	I don't understand what a drywall plug is either. perhaps some pics are in order. I hope mentioning GW isn't totally verboten because this thread is the best I've seen on the subject, by far. While bagging blossoms on tomatoes might be unnecessary early in the season, I wouldn't chance it on curcurbits.