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Chico, Ca

I am looking for information on how long people keep their blossoms cool with ice. One day? two? a week? We use styrofoam huts over ours with the amount of ice varying with the ambient outside temp. We average two days per blossom with ice. We do get some aborts, but I am leaning towards another reason then after pollination cooling. We grow under 30% shade cloth and mist 8-9 hrs a day. After we remove the huts we place 1/2" thick sheets of foam over the fruit to cut out direct sun.

The question I have is Would the female blossom gain any benefit from a developmental standpoint by actually being
cooled several days before actually opening?

Does it make sense that you could "cook it" the days before it opens while it is still developing? It would look the same outside but maybe be sterile inside. It seems odd to me that we worry so much about it AFTER we pollinated but do little if anything before.

Whaddya think? Robert

7/8/2003 9:56:46 AM

Caceres, mid west of Spain

I got some high temps here, over 100 F several days. Not need to use ice however, just shade cloth over the flower and evaporative cooling 7 hours/day starting at noon. This shade structures have been set several days before the females to open and they continues at this time. No aborts so far (cross fingers).
4-6 males used per female one and pollinating while sun rising. Temps under the shade, near the female never got over 75-80.

Robert, have you let a termomether into the ice box? If so how was the temps during the pollinating day?

Don

7/8/2003 12:09:30 PM

Chico, Ca

nope no thermometers yet. the structures we use are not that tight so I'm sure there is leakage of cool air out.
we find the water in the jugs inside our structures is still around 55-60f at around 7:30 pm. the structure size is rather large, 18"high by 24" square so the ice is placed in so it is not too close to the blossoms.

as of june 18 I have pollinated around 41 females by last count. I only use 2-3 males per blossom. 4 to 6 sounds like overkill to me... With 2-5 blosoms sometimes opening on the same day thats up to 30 males, wow...

I have many sets plus some aborts but I will keep it up for another week then stop. I will then cull down to 1 per plant over the next three weeks or so. Better to set them and cull then wait for "the one" and have trouble.

Robert

7/8/2003 1:01:06 PM