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prairie du sac wi

I'm wondering if each lobe only needs one speck of pollin to start it's growth(no more).So if I open pollinated a flower and only have three other plants in the area then the different lobes of the pumpkin will be the female plant X it's self or one of the other plants.I'll make shure to collect the seeds from each lobe sepret.Mabee when these seeds are grown I'll be able to tell witch lobe got pollinated by what(I do know my plants pritty well).Has anyone tryed this???

8/1/2002 10:35:32 PM

Deer Park, WI

This is a pretty common misconception in the punkin world. For in-depth description of this process, check out the pollination article on my webpage, found in the links section of this site. For a quick answer, here you go-

Each SEED needs one speck (grain) of pollen. Hypothetically speaking, if you put one grain of pollen on each lobe, you would only get 5 mature seeds in a 5 lobed pumpkin. Ma nature doesnt allow this though, as severly incomplete pollination results in fruit aborts.

Personally, I believe pollinating different lobes with different pollen sources is a waste of time. It has been tried before and I dont think anything came of it. Without the use of a microscope and proper tools, there is no way a gardener can create the controlled enviroment necessary for lobe differentiation.

8/2/2002 11:02:23 AM