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Canada

Night Time vs Early Mourning Pollination does it matter ?

Reason I ask is because i'm on Afternoon shift 4pm-12.30am

dont get home till roughly 12.45 am , Had 2 females one
on the main of the 1178 about 24 ft out and another on the
620 Boyton about 25 ft out that looked like they were about to open this afternoon after the rain left and sun came out
so i covered both of the females up with zip lock bags and went to work. got home at 12.45 am just about 1/2 hour ago
went out and sure enough both flowers were open in the zip lock bags. so i took some pollin out of the fridge went outside with flash light and pollinated but the 1178L female with an 1178L Male ( self ) and pollinated the 620 Boyton female with an 1178 L Wentzell male as well
Both have nice large shiny golf ball sized pumpkings under them there is NO way id be up by 6am to do the job and didn want the flowers to bake in the sun covered up in zip lock bags so figured id pollinate them at night

So yup both are pollinated ( 2 males each flower ) both are tied and covered with old laundry baskets ( to keep the animals away)

so ya does it really matter if its day time pollination or night?

P.S temps are around 60 right now a bit on the cooler side
sure hope this doesnt affect anything this is basically my last chance for a nice pumpkin this year

pictures to come

Dave

8/5/2004 1:01:46 AM

Ohio

They say once the female flower opens the first 4 hours is when it should be pollinated. You did the right thing by pollinating your females when you did in my opinion.

8/5/2004 1:45:59 AM

Canada

Yup, I hope so.. Only thing that bothers me,, is 1. all the rain we have gotten ground is pretty wet, 2.. COOL temps
its around the 60 mark right now at 1.40 am off to bed VERY SOON!! didnt want the flowers to bake in the zip lock bags so really didnt have much choice.. both are pollinated now
and we will see what happens.. long range weather forcast calls for NO rain for at least 5 days with warm days and cool nights so ya hopefully these pollinations take.. Been looking forward to growing pumkins since last fall would like to get at least an 100 lber this year.. on a good note
still a few more females to open yet all should be pollinated by friday after that rest will be culled... another 2 weeks i'll be cutting the secondarys back.
Dave

8/5/2004 1:56:11 AM