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Post by toad on Dec 21, 2014 10:13:50 GMT -5
I realize, that in those summers warm enough for my melon landrace (Farthest North Melon Mix + a few additions over the years) to grow, rainy weeks can continous fill the female flowers with water, preventing pollinisation. I need some kind of drain installed. Thought nodding female flowers could present the solution. Does anybody know of melon strains with noding flowers (or other drain systems)?
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Post by templeton on Dec 21, 2014 16:52:10 GMT -5
I'll check my patch...
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Post by flowerweaver on Dec 21, 2014 17:24:07 GMT -5
Sounds like a good trait to incorporate. I wonder if there's a way to punch a small hole through the bottom of the petal and calyx to assist drainage? It would be time consuming, but perhaps a solution until you could breed something with downward flowers. Or maybe you could lay some kind of bee-penetrable netting over the flowers that would make them point down without obstructing the pollination?
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Post by toad on Dec 22, 2014 14:44:56 GMT -5
OK, I wish the breeding solution :-) Not that my melon bed has a notable size, it could be possible to pierce every single flower with a needle. But in the long run breeding out of the problem seems less laborious.
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Post by rowan on Dec 22, 2014 15:35:44 GMT -5
I'm not sure this is a trait that should be bred out as it limits bee and other insect pollination. It might be easier to cover them with a plastic or other roof overnight. The flowers loose their pollination viability after around 10am or so in the morning so you would just need to take down the roof at noon if you wanted to open them to the elements for part of the day and cover them in the evening. Just a thought.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 22, 2014 16:37:28 GMT -5
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Post by toad on Dec 23, 2014 16:37:27 GMT -5
Rowan, covering would be a solution, and thats how melons are grown in Denmark, if people give it a try. But there are a lot of crops that benefit from covering, and I need to look at plants, not plastic or glass, when finding inner energy (tending the garden). That's why I try to breed a melon for open ground garden in scandinavia.
Joseph, you maybe can imagine how my heart started beating happily, when I saw your photos. This is the trait I hoped for. Do you have any idea from which cultivar this trait came? Or should I ask you to send me some seeds, if you saved seeds from this plant with horizontal pedicels?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 23, 2014 17:09:41 GMT -5
toad: The plants with the horizontal flowers were part of my general landrace population. I didn't save seeds from them separately because I wasn't looking for that trait. I'll start looking next growing season.
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Post by rowan on Dec 23, 2014 18:18:17 GMT -5
Toad, I was just thinking of my Trombetta di albenga pumpkin/squash which has flowers that face down and therefore don't open properly. If I don't hand pollinate them then hardly any get pollinated naturally. It is a right pain in the bum.
I find that many of my melons have horizontal flowers like Joseph shows, they still seem to get wet easily and I have to wait till the dew dries off before pollinating them.
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Post by toad on Dec 27, 2014 15:38:42 GMT -5
Rowan, I read carefully what you write. I guess "a drainage" wouldn't work then? I wish I could find a trait that would make my melon rain resistant, when flowering and later. I'm not going to handpollinage my melons. With pumpkins/squash and watermelon it's no problem, but with melon I don't remember any succes handpollinating.
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Post by templeton on Dec 27, 2014 16:01:16 GMT -5
Checked my Farthest North melons yesterday - they all face up. Rowan, Tromboncino = Trombetta di albenga has been my favorite summer squash, and a few years ago when I changed seed sources, it failed to produce much at all - I wonder if flower position in different strains is to blame? Got me wondering. I've got a new source this year, will be interested in how they produce. T
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Post by rowan on Dec 27, 2014 16:18:12 GMT -5
Toad, I find that with the melons that have a lot of leaf cover they produce a lot of the flowers under the leaves, it protects the flowers from moisture and they still get pollinated well from other insects that get under the leaves. I can't give you varieties off the top of my head but it might be worth planting quite a few and seeing which have the best leaf cover.
I will go out today and check the leaf cover of the varieties I have planted at the moment. Maybe I should incorporate that info into my website, hmmm.
Gregg, I am also a fan of the trombocino, I can sell it as zucchini as well as mature and it makes great soup. I don't know if all the strains have the downward facing flowers and I have been going to get more seeds to try and find a strain that doesn't as I am getting sick of having to pollinate the flowers by hand every day.
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Post by toad on Dec 27, 2014 16:35:31 GMT -5
The umbrella solution :-)
I will look for how leaves might protect flowers next summer.
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Post by philagardener on Dec 27, 2014 20:17:10 GMT -5
The umbrella solution :-) The ones from cocktails? Perfect size! I grew Tromboncino for the first time this year and had good pollination. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the flowers but don't think they were pointed down. I'll try to pay attention to that this Summer.
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