Last year I
learned how to grow pumpkins in a greenhouse by watching videos on YouTube. I learned how to tell the difference between male and female
Pumpkin flowers and how to hand pollinate them. If it hadn't been for
the Internet and YouTube I probably would have been running around with
a net trying to catch some bees to turn loose in our greenhouse.
This year,
along with the usual Tomatoes, I'm trying Cantaloupe. I found videos
that show how to tell the male and female blossoms apart, which is
similar to Pumpkins, but more difficult due to their small size and
my failing eyesight. Like Pumpkins, the male flowers are first to
appear in great numbers but the shy females take their own sweet time
to make an entrance. A small artist's paint brush works to transfer
the pollen, and an electric tooth brush imitates the buzzing vibes of
a bee. (Oh yeah, I got that from a video about Tomato pollination!)
Tomatoes are
different; the flowers have both male and female pollen, the bees
just stir it up when they enter the flowers. One video I watched was
called “How to spank your Tomatoes!” It showed a guy whacking his
plants with a rolled up newspaper to distribute the pollen. Another
espoused the electric toothbrush method which I liked much better.
If I can
find a Yellow and Black striped Tee shirt, my Bee imitation will be
complete.
