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Cologne / Germany

Just returned from my neighbour Joerg who is growing the same plants like me - 726 Eisenhaur, 466 Deary. They were planted "face-to-face" starting to overgrow the garden right now. Everything was open pollinated. These fruits look very strange. The biggest one is like a shoe carton.
I did it described like here on BP, covering the night before, hand pollinate etc. My p´k are not fast (guess due to the weather) but nice in shape, developing orange colour right now.
So right now I can´t see any advantage in open pollination, what do you think?

8/1/2002 8:07:50 PM

Key West, FL

sounds interesting, sounds like the bees didnt fully pollinate. I'm just geussing. By the way what time is it there in Germany, what is the time difference from the west coast.

8/1/2002 8:20:36 PM

Cologne / Germany

westcoast should be around 10 hours.

8/1/2002 9:09:51 PM

Cologne / Germany

ps, NY is actually 6 hours.

8/1/2002 9:11:31 PM

Key West, FL

so 9 hours, man what are you doing up at 3 am? dont you have job in the morning or is it a night shift and you are not actually working but on here?

8/1/2002 9:20:35 PM

Cologne / Germany

Ben, I do my job in an advertizing agency (a serious one) and so sometimes it´s simply getting late.
Maybe some other other ideas concerning the headline of this thread?

8/1/2002 10:24:52 PM

South Hill, Virginia

I read some threads about all lobes not getting pollinated and that causes lopsided fruit. I have no idea really...I went to a Baptist school and my biology teacher skipped all the chapters about reproduction;)

Joze would probably know.....he is a biology guy.

8/1/2002 11:06:29 PM

Key West, FL

sorry didnt mean to offend you if i did, i was just joking around

8/2/2002 12:10:13 AM

Cologne / Germany

not offending Ben, but if I had to choose again I´d like to become a gardener sometimes...not needing to watch plants using a candle...

8/2/2002 5:12:05 AM

Indiana

Some fruit grow deformed, some dont get pollinated well, and have a lobe, or most commonly parts of lobes not pollinated well.

Now Floh... I read you post on saving males in the freezer.... I am here to tell you not to waste your time. After a few weeks they get freezer burn, and the pollen inside them deteriorates. I have heard of some success with cryogenics freezing.....

8/2/2002 8:32:48 AM

Kuna, Id.

Floh,
Last yr I pollinated only half of a four lobe to see what would happen. And what I got was half a pkn. One side grew weel while the other just stretched to keep up. Is hand pollination important. I would say yes

8/2/2002 10:03:45 AM

South Hill, Virginia

floh,

Those orange umbrellas look cool on the pumpkin cam. Wonder what the neighbors think:)

8/2/2002 10:28:12 AM

Deer Park, WI

Theres a ton of reasons why a fruit grows deformed. its impossible to pin down exactly why. I would say the majority of the time its incomplete pollination. This may be due to the grower, the bees, the pollen, the eggs. There is one advantage to open pollination that I can think of- That is if you are not confident in your pollination techniques, i'd suggest doing both, hand pollination and leaving it open for the bees to fill in the gaps. if one is trying to make crosses for specific seeds, then this method wouldnt work very well.

8/2/2002 10:55:15 AM

Cologne / Germany

Thank you all for your opinions. Tom, I heard that Polka was freezing his flowers with some success, so it´s just an experiment. But to put them inside in a glass of water the night before to let them open up, that works great - but too late for me. However my wife loved it...

8/2/2002 12:46:56 PM

Key West, FL

floh about the candle thing, haha i was wondering why the other day i looked at your cam and there was like this flame, orange circle type thing in the patch, but now i know

8/2/2002 2:40:12 PM