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Old 22-01-2007, 11:46 PM posted to aus.gardens
0tterbot 0tterbot is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 713
Default squash family: flower fertilising

"SG1" wrote in message
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"0tterbot" wrote in message
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hello!
now, i know that i need to "help" my pumpkins fertilise their flowers,
just in case. and i know i don't need to "help" my zucchini whatsoever
g .

but where do we stand on any of the other cucurbits? i thought i'd help
out the spaghetti squash, rockmelon & cucumbers, but the little blighters
see me coming & close up all their flowers, or something.

should i be concerned & make an effort to pollinate the female flowers if
possible? (do i need to get up earlier in the morning? ;-) or can i
assume that being in the country with loads of bees & other bugs (not to
mention ants, which seem to like the rockmelon flowers...) it will all
work out anyway?

tia for any help.
kylie

Ah the warm heart Cold fingers syndrome.


eh?

I always give the pumpkins a hand
but the others seamed to do more than ok when I grew them. But we do have
a tree of wild bees on offer.
Jim


i'm hedging my bets i think & messing around with all of them (after i
posted this, my pooty blew up so i thought i'd just do my own thing & see
what happened). i know other people seem to have no trouble, but several
times i've had (for example) a whole cucumber plant that only ever grew ONE
fruit. there are many, many more bees here, which might help lift my curse.
not quite a treeful of wild bees, but we'll see!
kylie