Hand pollination of Squash
Macmex
15 years ago
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david52 Zone 6
15 years agoMacmex
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Squash Borer Barricade
Comments (5)I have cucumbers and squash under row covers this year as well. I planned to take the covers off for pollination, but i have so many cucumber beetles that i decided to hand pollinate my cukes rather than give them up to the beetles. It's tedious and i'm not sure how much longer i can keep it up. I just added some parthenocarpic cukes and zucchini under the cover, which will be easier to manage. When those plants are a bit bigger i may uncover the regular cukes and zucchini for pollination. I used low tunnel hoops and a lightweight Agribon. My insect netting is only 7ft wide, which isn't wide enough to fit over the hoops. I can't see thru the Agribon, and it's toasty under the cover, but the plants are doing well. I keep thinking about taking the cover off and being done with this nonsense, but when i see how healthy my plants look, i decide to keep with it, at least for now. My winter squash is just covered with Agribon but no hoops. The plants are starting to vine out and i need to either remove the covers soon or add hoops to give them more room. I'd like to at least keep them covered for vine borer season. I found a MD extension agency publication that said vine borers were only a threat until mid-June. I'm in a colder part of the state so think my vine borer season may be a bit later than that. I'm hoping if i keep my plants covered thru the end of the month i'll miss the worst of it. And then there are squash bugs to worry about. I hate them all....See MorePlease help a newbie! What is this? pics
Comments (5)Yes it looks like the Squash Vine Borer. I am sorry to say I am quite familiar with this kind of damage. I operated once on the vine (cut it open and take out the worm) but I found it really gross. If you can get the worm/maggot out, you can re-bury with some soil and sometimes it will salvage the plant. On some vines you can bury the roots that develop along the vine. There are lots of ideas about how to prevent them. You can search here for those disussions. For me, I just may give up on growing squash. I usually get a few and then this happens. Last year I planted a zuke on the front deck in a pot just to see if I could escape the SVB and didn't. Good luck and hope others will chime in. Karen...See MoreFor newbies: pollination in greenhouses
Comments (10)I have two cherry tomato plants but one got late blight so i quarantined that ass with the quickness. but my last plant which is marvelous is in a deep water culture has many flowers but they keep falling off! i have made a buzz-pollinator out of a vibrating razor handle and a toothbrush head. I've also made a centrifugal dremmel out of a cap on the end of the dremmel with a spinning cotton swab in the middle. But theres been some freakishly hot weather since the flowers opened! anybody have an idea where to buy pollen perhaps? or any surefire over-the-top ways to make this work(cooling methods, trapping a bumblebee in my room for the day)? I dont want the past 80 days to be for nothing. The mornings have been about 80F reaching 93F noon....See MoreHand Pollinated Squash is dieing
Comments (3)I am curious what you mean by opened partially? If you open the flower a day early it won't work and if you open the flower after it blooms at like 5 in the afternoon it won't work. You should pollinate the flowers when they are open. You definitely want to hand pollinate before 10 am, the earlier the better. The later it becomes the less pollen is left on the flowers. If you really want to be sure you get all that valuable pollen tape a flower shut the day before or put a bag over the male flower until it tries to open and you can use all that pollen. Rain could be an issue but it probably wasn't unless your plants are surrounded by sitting water (like puddles). I am sure in the very near future you will start getting all those wonderful squash....See Moredavid52 Zone 6
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