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Deer Park, WI

Hello folks- Im a bit bored and felt like writing. Since its right in the middle of the pollination period, I'd thought I'd lay out a little plant science for you. Never hurts to know whats going on when you ram that anther into that pistil and watch the sparks fly!!!

The male flower is collectively called the "stamen" and includes two parts, the "anther" and "filament". The anther is the yellow part with the pollen on it. The filiment is what connects the anther to the rest of the flower. The female flower is collectively called the "pistil". Pistils have four major parts, called the "stigma", "style", "ovary", and "ovules". The stigma is what recieves the pollen. The lobes in the female flower are the stigma. The style connects the stigma to the ovary, serving essentially the same purpose as the filament does for the anther. The ovary is the baby pumpkin, and ovule is a fancy term for an undeveloped seed. continued...

7/10/2003 10:40:39 AM

Cologne / Germany

Joze, thank you. At least I know what it´s called in English now. Please continue.

7/10/2003 10:45:02 AM

Deer Park, WI

Now that the terminology is out of the way, here's how it works. When you rub the anther against the stigma, pollen is transferred to the female flower. After a set amount of time (about a day, depending on temperature), the pollen esstially "germinates". It grows a hollow tube from the stigma, through the style, into the ovary, where it connects to an ovule. Try to imagine literally hundreds of tiny tubes growing through that little area in between the flower and baby pumpkin. It happens! There are up to 800 ovules inside the baby pumpkin, each one of these eventually becomes a seed. When the pollen tube connects to an ovule, the pollen grain sends another tiny cell thru the tube, which then joins with the ovule. This is the process of fertilization. The pollen has now combined with the ovule to form a true seed. This explains why you need lots of pollen to create a successful pollination. Each one of those 800 or so ovules needs a single grain of pollen to reach it. This is a very complex yet fascinating process! Its hard to imagine all this dividing, tunneling, combining on such a small scale, but it is essential to the growth of our fruit. Hope you enjoyed this Cliff Claven-esque moment. Please fire away with any questions you have.

7/10/2003 10:54:11 AM

White Plains, NY

Some have reported using 2 to 6 males to one female. Is this not overkill? In nature I can't imagine the bees and others transferring more pollen than us manipulating one male directly to the female. Is more better?

7/10/2003 11:16:15 AM

[email protected]

Jim,

If pollen doesn't reach every ovule (either atificially or naturally) then all the pumkins seeds won't develope. Imagine the horror of growing a big one, getting it weighed in a little light, then cutting it open to find only half the seeds developed. Thus knowing a record may have been set with more attention to pollination details. Scary!

I have a question though. If a male flower occupies all leaf juctions along a vine from one end to the other, is there no possiblinity of a female flower? Or can another flower later occupy the same axis? Would this then justify pollinating on a secondary? I have one such mutant.

Great info Joze!

Steve

7/10/2003 12:16:54 PM

No Place Special

Thanks Joze!

7/10/2003 12:52:45 PM

Caceres, mid west of Spain

Question Joe:

How many pollen grains can be in each grain of pollen you can see over the stigma after the "act"?

Don

7/10/2003 1:41:04 PM

Utah

incomplete pollination results in a mis-shapen and typically not-large fruit, not large fruit that weigh light.

new flowers do not grow at an axis where flower(s) have
already been.

7/10/2003 2:21:02 PM

Utah

re-phrase...
How many pollen grains can be in each clump of pollen you can see over the stigma after the "act"?

7/10/2003 2:27:46 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

As Jeff about a fully developed fruit and no seeds.

I believe he experienced this last year.

7/10/2003 6:00:40 PM

Deer Park, WI

Purely guessing, I'd assume that each male flower contains many thousands of grains of pollen. However, moisture and other factors cause it to clump, and when you paint the female, often times there is uneven distribution of the pollen over the stigmas. If you are using 3+ males per female, there's no doubt you are getting 800+ pollen grains on the lobes; its how evenly distributed that pollen is, is what counts.

7/11/2003 8:42:23 AM

Caceres, mid west of Spain

Aha!

7/12/2003 7:21:54 AM

Cincinnati,OH

If each stigma is responsible for a individual pocket of seeds within the pumpkin is it then possible, in theory , to pollinate each stigma with pollen from a different plant and have a pumpkin with say 5 sets of genetically different seeds?

7/15/2003 6:22:49 PM