From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Paradise Mountain, New York

If your going to make a cross between two pumpkins, is it best to cover both the male and female flowers when you hand pollinate

7/15/2002 10:01:09 PM

Bridgewater, NJ

yep, bees could take pollen away from the male, and/or put other pollen on it. so when you go to pollinate, other poller would go on. If female not covered, then other pollen can get in

7/15/2002 10:42:21 PM

Mid Michigan

I used zip-lock baggies with holes poked in for air flow last year to cover males, and the female. I always covered them the night before I thought they were gonna open... (zipped the baggies closed right up to the stem), and it worked out quite well. A couple mornings I had to actually fight off bees to get the pollination done as I was opening the baggies!
Good luck.....cuzbiker

7/16/2002 2:00:53 AM

Kuna, Id.

I pull the males in the morn just before they start to open and put them in a paper bag. Pull up a lawn chair next to a female and wait. Fight the bees do the deed, Put the extra males in the fridg. in tupperware till the next morn. and start all over agian. Pollinated 9 in 110 deg weather, lost only one.
Ken

7/17/2002 12:26:11 AM