Topic: Producing clean to type pumpkin/squash seeds..

[goodlife]

I've been wondering about it for a while now and thought this year to make an efford to save my own instead allways buying some..now I have few varieties that I want to keep growing on...
So..I 've gone through my books and info is bit vague..for me..
I know that I have to tie some female and male flowers night before to prevent petals opening before fertilisation..ok..tie with what..a bit of string?..and then following morning take the male flowers to the female and do the bit...is one male enough or should there be more than one and do they have to be from different plant or can they be from same?...then you tie the female flower again (this is turning SM story,,, ;D) or fleece/bag it untill petals drop..then you label it and grow it.. ;D
So now I only need to know some answers for my question bits... ::) Anybody...??

[Jeannine]

OK this is what you do.. as you say go to the plants the late afternoon before you do the job, Identify the male and female flowers,(the girls have a small bulge at the base of the flower, the boys don't. You can use flowers from more than one plant of the same type, it is called sibbing (from siblings) and from the same plant it is selfing(from itself) The flowers which will be ready the next morning will be a good yellow compared to ones that are past it and they will be just showing slight  signs of opening. Two males for every female is best if you can.

You need to close the flowers on both the males and females. You can use twist ties, paper tape, soft string or wool. The paper tape is good because it sticks to itself and gives a good seal. Do it gently so you don't damage the flower especially the important bits inside. You can also make a small drawstring bag ahead of time, use very fine net, like tulle, mosquito net or best of all thin fleece that you would use to protect crops, you would then put the bag over the whole flower and draw the string around the stalk.

The following morning, go to your chosen flowers,, pick the male flowers and take them to the girls.Remove the coverings and peel back the petals of the males, this will expose the pollen covered anthers inside.

Take off the covers on the female flower, the petals will open up, you can use a brush if you wish but with big flowers it isn't needed really, just roll the loose pollen from the male onto the stigma in the females, it is quite easy, don't press hard, just roll it around..Use the pollen from two males to one female  to be sure you have deposited plenty of pollen.

Gently reclose the female flower and seal her up as before so nothing can get in and add to what you have done. Some breeders place a cotton ball over the stigma before closing, I don't. I actually like to bag my plants , then tape as described above.

If it takes, you will quickly see the base of the flowers start to swell after a few days. Make sure you mark this area so you know which is the pure one when you come to harvest, tape around the stem  either side of the flower is good. You can let the other flowers grow on normally as you will get lots of seed from 1 squash, or you can do a few..just 2 males to 1 female.

When you harvest make sure you mark the pure squash in some way so it doesn't get mixed up with the others and keep it separate.

To get good viable seed the  chosen squash needs to  fully  mature  at harvest and let the squash  further cure  for at least a month before you take the seeds.

Rinse the seeds in a colander until all the clingy bits are off, then put the seeds on a paper plate or paper until they are dry at room temp out of the sun..takes a few weeks. Make sure you mark the plate. When the seeds snap when you try to bend them they are OK for packing.

Probably more info than you need here as you had some already but did the lot in case anyone else was reading it.

Good luck.

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

Thanks Jeannine..does your fingers burn after typing all that lot... ;D ;D ;D
Anyway..everyhing is very clear now..and all I can do is wait that my plants start romping away and I can start the kinky business... ;)
Thanks for Robert as well.. he is going send me instruction through email...so now I really don't have any excuses left to for not doing it..

[Jeannine]

They do a bit.. but you said you had been reading elsewhere and it wasn't clear so tried not miss anything out ;D XX Jeannine

PS you have to talk to them as you do it..interupting their private moments as we do .

XX Jeannine

[Dandytown]

Hi Jeannine,

I appreciate this is an old post and therefore I may not get a reply.

Could somone that was growing  two pumpkin plants (A and B), remove all the male flowers off of plant A so that all its pumpkins are pollinated by pumpkin B male flowers?

I am asking merelty for a scientific point.

Thanks

Dandytown

[slyfox-mal]

not a bad question  here is why  controlled pollenation is better id say  insects  like honey bees can have a scavenging area of upto 3 miles so any squash or pkn in that area could end up pollenating youre fruit  regards mal

[Dandytown]

  So there is a world outside of my allotment walls eh?

Thanks Mal  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

You'd be unlikely to get cross-pollination over more than a very short distance if you were growing them in garden quantities. Honeybees are extremely good at searching out the best nectar sources, and will ignore anything growing in small quantities unless there's something special about it. They go for my borage, for instance, but I've never seen them on my squashes yet. Bag flowers if you're being extra careful, let's say with a rare variety, or if you're growing a lot of different ones. Otherwise, just rogue out the odd one that doesn't come true.

[Dandytown]

Thats interesting as I am planning to introduce lots of flowers next year even though the bees were all over my pumpkins this year. 

There could be a chance that I might introduce something that the bees prefer too my squash and pumpkins.

Apart from the two giant pumpkins that I intend on growing I am not planning to save any seed.

[realfood]

I found that bumble bees were very attracted to my squashes, but I rarely saw honey bees, even though there was a hive 100 m away.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've got hives a lot closer than that, and I've never seen a honeybee on a squash yet. They're extremely good at finding and exploiting the best available nectar sources, and obviously a few cucurbits aren't it. A field of them would probably get a different reaction. Bumblebees are non-specialist feeders; they visit whatever flowers they come across.

[goodlife]

My bees must be very lazy sort ;D..bit like their keeper.. ;D Last summer I had to be really careful when handling the flowers as there was always odd few honey bee buzzing around..and bumbles too.
But I find that some years they show great interest one crop and ingnore the same next year.. ::)

[Digeroo]

I thought that most of the pollinating of courgettes and squashes is done by pollen beetles.    The plants tend to produce males on one day even several different plants, and attract the beetles and can shut them in during the night, next day the females open and the beetles go over to the females taking the pollen with them.

Here they are in action a couple of years ago.

[Jeannine]

That an orgy.. XX Jeannine