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Hand Pollination

21 years ago

I was so excited yesterday. I had both a male & female flower on both my Musque de Provence Pumpkin and Summer Zuchetta Squash, so I taped them shut last night, but this morning, when I removed the tape of the squash, ants had gotten in, so that was a disappointment, then the pumpkin femaled flower actually had a bee in it when I removed the tape! Go Figure! This was my first try at this, and I will try again, because it is such fun...........any suggestions? I guess I need to put the tape lower, maybe cover the entire flower with tape. But I was affraid I would have trouble removing it. Has anyone tried to use clear contact paper? I thought I might try that next time. It may be easier to remove. I took some photos of my tape job last night, let me try and show them to you in the gallery.......

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Comment (1)

tania
21 years ago
Silybum... You just gave me a great idea! I recently figured out that my zukes were rotting because they weren't getting pollinated, so this year I began pollinating them myself. But as is happening to you, ants are getting into the male flowers and they're taking all of the pollen. I hadn't thought of taping the flowers shut, but what might be even better is taking an old pair of pany hose, and cutting them up into 5" tubes. Then by placing the flowers inside each one, and tying up each end to resemble a wrapped up candy, the ants won't be able to get in. A lighter fabric might be better, like that of lemon covers. I think I'll try this tomorrow with the panty hose! Thanks for the inspiration!
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