From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Buffalo, MN (Billsbigpumpkins@hotmail.com)

Do you use one or multiple males for pollination and why?

11/6/2009 11:21:13 PM

Winston Salem NC

Most use multiples to be sure there was enough pollen used for it to keep and not abort. I use three per female.
Rick

11/7/2009 5:54:01 PM

Ohio

just in case...
Multiple males from a single plant, not multiple plants.

11/7/2009 6:59:35 PM

Breslau, Ontario, Canada

I use enough until the lobes look like they're covered in shake n bake.

11/8/2009 2:10:36 AM

Ohio

Since the talk is still out that each male flower has the chance to carry a slightly different gene, even though the pollen is coming from the same plant , I pollinate with one female Bill, in hopes that my seeds will be as close to being the same as each other as possible. I have never had trouble 'most of the time' with low seeds counts doing it this way.

Bill, sent you a email a week or two back, not sure if you still use that email or not, but when you get a chance shoot me a email.

bosworthbrooks@yahoo.com

11/9/2009 5:06:10 AM

Buffalo, MN (Billsbigpumpkins@hotmail.com)

Thanks Brooks. The question I started to ask was "do you feel using multiple males lessons the ability to repeat identical results from the seeds".

11/9/2009 7:48:08 PM

Germany

why should flowers of the same plant carry slightly different genes ?

11/10/2009 7:11:59 AM

Anchorage, Alaska

The pollen from each flower on a plant should all be the same. The seeds will vary even with the same pollen from the recombination in meiosis.

You should do your best to completely cover the female with pollen in order for the fruit to reach full potential. Use as many males as you need to get this accomplished.

11/10/2009 8:23:26 AM

Western NY

About half the time, I only use one male, the rest of the time, I use two. it's not very often that I use more than two.

11/10/2009 10:12:35 AM

Mn

Newman is right. Meiosis makes each pollen grain(sex cell) slightly different than the next. Not to mention that crossing over of chromosomes mixes up allels too. Your best bet is to use as many males from the one plant you want to cross the female with. This all applies if I am correct in thinking that 1 pollen grain fertilizes 1 seed (ovum). I can get into a little more detail in a bit. I got a book on this stuff.

11/10/2009 10:23:45 AM

Ohio

Newman, thanks for that info , you really have me thinking now,, and that does make alot of sense to me. I learn something everday on here.

Brooks

11/10/2009 8:35:23 PM