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Antwerp, Belgium

Hi,

In times when we have to pollinate our flowers ourselves in order to keep the genetics of our plants known, I have this question :

How long can pollen be used? When you tie up a male flower to preserve the pollen for a female flower which is to open a day or two later, your chances for pollination are still OK. But how long can you do this? Of course not until the flower starts to rot.

Or can even dried pollen be used?(may be a stupid question but with some trees pollen from the year before can still pollinate)

Other side of the story : how long is the female flower fertile? They tend to wilt very fast but the little pumpkins ovary keeps looking OK even after wilting or even turning brown.

I also keep reading that the best time to pollinate is in the early morning. Is this to beat the bees to it? Because a tied up male flower can't do any harm. Or is there another reason?

Lots of questions, I know, but what are your experiences with pollination?

Thanks in advance for any reaction!

7/11/2014 9:45:47 AM

Nottingham, UK

Great way to search this site is via google

e.g. 'pollen site:www.bigpumpkins.com'

Here's an old post that it threw up about pollen, there are tons more:

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/msgboard/ViewThread.asp?b=3&p=14527

7/11/2014 11:20:33 AM

Antwerp, Belgium

Thanks for the tip, Dandy..... :-)

7/11/2014 12:40:12 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

Pollen loses viability fast after it forms on the stamen. I remember researching this years ago. After 4 hours it starts losing viablity, cant remember if it was 10% or 25% every hour. This also depended on heat and humidity.

7/11/2014 1:42:14 PM