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milford, CT,

I was talking with Tremor today and the subject of how much pollen is necessary to pollinate with came up. Typically I used 1 male flower to pollinate 1 female. Does only one grain actually end up pollinating or do many grains? Also does the quantity of pollen affect seed count?

6/28/2005 10:35:15 PM

Eugene,OR

The way I understand it, one grain fertilizes one seed. The more pollen grains that make it to the "eggs", the more seeds you're gonna' have.

6/28/2005 11:05:04 PM

Sioux Falls, SD garyboer@dakotalink.com

If a couple bees carry 100's of pollen grains, taking the whole male flower has to be a bezillion!

6/28/2005 11:42:14 PM

Ontario, Canada.

Mark, I believe Russ is correct. 1 flower is usually very adequate to pollinate your flowers.

"Additional self and or outcross pollen did not affect seed production". This may also be true for AGP's. Linked below.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/boj/2005/00000147/00000001/art00004

Gary, I believe that's a BEEZILLION.......

6/29/2005 1:04:10 AM

Paradise Mountain, New York

In the pat I only used one male to one female and it always worked

6/29/2005 1:05:38 AM

Rexburg, Idaho (brianchristensenmd@gmail.com )

if one is good, three or four are better. Certainly no harm will come from using "too much" pollen.

6/29/2005 8:14:40 AM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

Ir you pollinate with one male, will the seeds produce more consistant offspring, than if you pollinate with several males from the same plant?

6/29/2005 11:58:18 AM

Syracuse, NY

hmmm...interesting question.
probably an interesting answer, too, but i do not have it.
lol!

i would try to pollinate every female flower with three males as a rule of (my own) thumb, unless there are
fewer available, of course. i did use six males to pollinate my 250.X (never could remember what the # is
to the right of the decimal) (794 Wronski X 950.4 Boyton)
and i got probably 700-plus seeds from that 250.X pounder.
so, if you want a lotta seeds from your fruit, use six males! my 575 from '04 (950.4 Boyton X 767 Catapano)
which Budman has growing, was only hit with ONE male
on the 1st of July '04. got a good sum of seeds but not 700!

6/29/2005 5:02:09 PM

Utah

The answer is NO ...
there is no difference between one and many in terms of consistancy. Each pollen grain is independently formed from the avaible DNA according to the laws of genetics and probability. i.e. ... Mendelian Genetics and Punnett Squares. RR, Rr, and rr crosses.

http://www.aggc.org/PSquares.asp

6/29/2005 5:12:54 PM

Indiana

one male flower has approximately 6000 grains of pollen on it, so if you spread it around well, you shouldnt have a problem using just 1 male. I like to do over kill and do 2-3, but dont worry if I only have 1.

Tom

6/29/2005 7:41:50 PM

Amherst, WI

Two years ago, I was growing the 714 Bobier. My main pumpkin on that one split in mid August and I noticed another small one had gotten open pollinated by the bees. I let it grow and when I took the seeds out there were 822 in there. I thought the bees do a pretty good job.

6/29/2005 10:59:04 PM

milford, CT,

Thanks guys,
All of my pumpkins have set and are growing quickly.
I'd be up the creek if it weren't for input from other growers on BP. Thanks for the help. Mark

7/1/2005 9:47:06 PM