From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Rush, NY

I just read the "how to" article covering Hand Pollinating. It is very good. I suggest when you are about to pollinate the females stigma, that you look as best you can UNDER it to see of there is anything there that has tiny seeds on it. Those tiny seeds belong inside the fruit. My experience has been that if you leave that fruit, when it reaches approximately 100 pounds, the part of the fruit where the seeds were will not develope as fast as it should. They often split in that area. I now remove all fruit where I can see seeds under the stigma. Some plants have a high percent of their fruit with seeds in the blossom. Has anyone else seen seeds under the stigma and if you left the fruit grow, did it develope an odd shape?

3/16/2001 1:11:39 PM

Choctaw, OK

interesting thing to know Len....i will definitely check that out this year...i did not know that........do you mean like an odd shape like developing a dill ring near the blossom end?? Can those tiny seeds play a role in dill rings near the blossom end?

Case

3/16/2001 6:47:32 PM

Midway City, California

Wow this could be an intresting subject. Two years of growing and I have never really looked that deep into the flower. Would looking through a manifying glass help or can they be easily seen? John

3/16/2001 10:43:57 PM

Rush, NY

To Case and Water: The non-developement is lengthwise, and I don't think it increases the chance of Dill rings. The part that grows slowly can be the complete length of the fruit or just part of it on either end. I think it depends on what part of the fruit those seeds belong. Most of the time the appendege with the little seeds can easily be seen. However this past year my Eaton 780 plant had a lot of fruit with "seeds in the blossom". They were at about 5 o'clock on the first fruit on the main vine and the fruit was close to the ground. I didn't see them until about 10 days later when I removed the dried up flower. I should have removed the fruit at that point but decided to leave it. Growth on about 1/3rd of the fruit on the blossom end slowed in that area and at 195 pounds I removed it because of its odd shape.

3/17/2001 6:46:06 AM

PA

I have a great closeup picture of a blossom that had one of its lobes exploded, or so it appeared. I'll try to send it to someone witha scanner to post it. I'm not sure if its even the same thing that we're talking about but the picture clearly shows the tiny seeds all over the inside of the blossom.I'll have to chec my records about how it developed, I know I pollinated it.

3/17/2001 10:14:57 AM

Rush, NY

Amy, since you saw seeds inside the blossom, that is for sure what I was writing about. When there are lot of seeds, the stigma segment in front of the seeds is sometimes deformed (you used the word exploded.

3/17/2001 10:42:32 AM

Connecticut, USA

Take a look at the closeup picture of the female on the article about hand pollination in the How To section... that female was a bit mangled... If this is what you are talking about, I may be able to post a close-up.

3/17/2001 1:13:21 PM