melons more difficult than squash?

[littleminnie]

I haven't saved my own melon seeds yet. I heard dealing with the melon flowers is more difficult than with squash. I am wondering about this. I suppose I could just grow one variety but I don't want to. I also suppose since watermelon and cantelope are both c. melo that they will cross.
Anyone have tips on isolating and hand pollinating melons vs squash? Are they just harder because the flowers are smaller?

[canadamike]

Watermelon a CITRULLUS LANATUS and melons are CUCUMIS MELO and these do not cross.

Melons are very easy to pollimise, like squashes. The flowers are smaller but they are easy to deal with anyway. No problem in sight Minnie... this whole family is perfect to learn how to self pollinate or do hybrids.

[jonnyyuma]

I agree with Mike. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the plant isn't wanting for anything when you start pollination. make sure moisture is adequate, as pollination and fruit set are stressful on the plant when done artificially. For melon select the female flower you want to pollinate the evening before it will open. The next morning either pick a freshly opened male from the same plant (self) or from another plant of the same variety (sib) and brush over the stigma or brush the pollen off onto the stigma with a small paint brush.
Jonny

[sandbar]

Jonny,

Do you then bag the blossom or tape it back shut?

[terracotta]

Mar 27, 2010 16:08:59 GMT -5 jonnyyuma said:

I agree with Mike. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the plant isn't wanting for anything when you start pollination. make sure moisture is adequate, as pollination and fruit set are stressful on the plant when done artificially. For melon select the female flower you want to pollinate the evening before it will open. The next morning either pick a freshly opened male from the same plant (self) or from another plant of the same variety (sib) and brush over the stigma or brush the pollen off onto the stigma with a small paint brush.
Jonny

tried paintbrush doesn't work pollen sticks to it too much, any other methods? tried q-tip also

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Apr 3, 2012 17:16:15 GMT -5 @terracotta said:

tried paintbrush doesn't work pollen sticks to it too much, any other methods? tried q-tip also

My preferred method for many types of hand pollinations, is to pick the male flower and rub it's anthers against the stigma of the female flower.

[terracotta]

any thoughts on watermelon never did get one to pollinate. are they self fertile?

[James]

Watermelon needs an insect pollinator. The bees will do the job if you have bees. Otherwise you may have to hand pollinate.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Oct 22, 2012 18:56:00 GMT -5 James said:

Watermelon needs an insect pollinator. The bees will do the job if you have bees. Otherwise you may have to hand pollinate.

Can you recommend a technique? All of the hand pollinations I attempted of watermelon failed this summer... Where is the pollen located on the male flower? Which part of the female flower is susceptible to pollen germination? When is the stigma receptive? What time of day is pollen viable, etc?

[rowan]

Littleminnie - I'll let you in on a secret. If you don't have particular favorite melons, and you are not going to sell seeds, you can just grow the ones you like and let them cross pollinate. The melons you end up with after you save and plant your own seed may look different but they will still all be yummy, and does it really matter if they don't all look the same if they taste good.

Joseph - I hand pollinate all my melons and watermelons due to space constraints and growing far too many varieties all in the one block. I find watermelons easier than other melons to pollinate. Do it in the morning with newly opened flowers and you should be right. The pollen should be bright yellow and falling off when it is ready and the females will be a bit sticky so the pollen sticks to the stigmas.

[adamus]

I've been told that melon pollen is only good when it is damp, like first thing in the morning. I'm not sure if this is right, BUT, I did get much better pollination when I hand pollinated in the early morning, when the pollen was fresh. After about 9am, it was a lot less successful..

[Drahkk]

Here that's true of both melons and squash. By 10-11 AM the flowers are wilted closed. Gotta catch 'em early! Thankfully the bees get to the garden earlier than I do a lot of days...

MB

[Joseph Lofthouse]

OK then. The watermelon pollinations I attempted were around 2PM... Hottest part of the day. Things aren't damp around here first thing in the morning (no dew), but at least they are cool during that part of the day.

[Walk]

I've had luck pollinating melons and cukes (also squash) in the very early morning, plucking off the males and rubbing them directly on the female. I use 3 males for each female to be sure. I sometimes even double up the males on squash females too as "insurance". But the easiest way for me is to only grow 1 variety of each species. Other than the pepo's, we have managed to narrow our focus so now we only have the pepo to pollinate.

[12540dumont]

Minnie, you can also try putting one type of cantaloupe in a row, followed by squash, followed by a cuke, followed by a watermelon. On either side of the row you're intending to collect seed from, plant corn. The bees tend to go in a straight line down the row. Since none of these cross, you should get a pretty good seed set. Put the other melons, etc, on the other side of the garden. I have found that the bees normally fly the easiest way, down the open row and not over the corn. And yes, I watched them start at the melon and continue down the row and then up and out to their home. I had very little crossing with this method.

Of course, I did not know that honeydew crossed with cantaloupe and so next year's saved melons should be interesting.