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Arizona Gardening

Hand polinating ????

18 years ago

Remember my Zucchini plant I had questions about? Well I planted it in March. To date I have ONE Zucchini ;( There never seems to be any female blooms, then when there are, there are no male blooms to polinate it! Does it need to be polinated with the same species? Or can I dust it with any old flower?

Angry Zucchini woman ;(

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Comments (5)

User
18 years ago
Is the female the pollen or the pod parent? If it's the pollen parent parent, you should try storing some pollen in the fridge- if stored properly (and I'm not sure what properly is) it can be kept for up to a week I think. I pick up lots of tid bits here and there, this was something I read about pollinating water lilies. It certainly couldn't hurt to try!
judy_b
18 years ago
I think you might end up with a cross if you use a different species. My brother raised punkininis one year. The had pumpkins and zucchini growing in the same patch and they crossed all by themselves. They had big green striped thingies. His wife made pie out of them.
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Hi, Any seed that is not hybrid whether heirloom or not(some plants can be brand new and not a hybrid) can be saved and will come true to type. Cross pollination depends a lot on the type of plant. Here's an explanation of of squash that I wrote before: Cross pollination happens when you grow two squash of the same species. An example is Acorn Squash, Zucchini and the little ornamental gourds(not real gourds like a birdhouse gourd) are all Cucurbita pepo. They will cross. They will not cross with other species. Like a Hubbard squash, Cucurbita maxima, will not cross with a Cucurbita pepo type squash. So when growing squash as long as the second name does not match, you can grow different types without worry of crossing if you wish to save seed. And squash do not cross with melons or cukes. You only have to worry about cukes crossing with cukes and melons crossing with melons. So you can grow multiple squash/pumpkin/gourds as long as the latin second names do not match. If the latin second names match, you need 1/2 mile between varieties to keep them pure. Most things that have a lot of insect visitation, need 1/2 mile or so. For saving for yourself, you can go a bit less and chances are you will still be ok. I hope I made sense. If not please ask more questions. Remy
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Pollinating will make absolutely no difference in whether or not you get fruit on a key lime. It won't really even make a difference in how many seeds you get. As to the two different type of blossoms you've got, they all just look like different stages of opening. Key limes will pretty much flower intermittently all year, and will hold fruit when they feel they're able. Like all citrus, they'll drop the vast majority of fruitlets formed. Just keep it healthy, make sure its roots are in good shape, give it plenty of sun, and good water and fertilizer, and you'll get fruit.
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Some clones of P. capsularis are self-fertile. It is very unlikely that it will cross with P. 'Incense', having a different number of chromosomes. Also, P. 'Incense' is considered to be pollen sterile, so can only be used as the seed parent in crosses.
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User
18 years ago
Well, was it a good pie?
grant_in_arizona
18 years ago
Hiya Trolip and all,

You can pollinate it with anything in the same genus (Cucurbita), but if you save the seeds from the fruit, they will be hybrids between the two types of plants (sometimes fun, sometimes not).

Azreno is right: you can collect the pollen from the male blooms and store it in the fridge (dry is best, so ideally in a sealed jar half-filled with flour and the pollen in a small, open envelope or container inside the jar (resting on top of the flour) so the flour can absorb the moisture). It will keep for quite a few weeks that way. I do the same thing all the time with various plants that do the same no-opposite-sex-blooms-open-at-the-same-time thing.

Moisture-removing silica gel works better than flour, but flour is a fine substitute for short, quick, storage.

Let us know what you do, and how it works out.

Take care,
Grant
Pagancat
18 years ago
Buy some new shoes and you'll get the silica gel.

Or you can probably get it at Michaels, but the shoes are more betterer.

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