About the only change in the pumpkin patch, during the last two weeks, has been the growing vines. I continue to check the plants each morning for any female blossoms that may have opened up. They typically are only open for one day. If there are no bees flying about to pollinate the blossoms, 
within a week or so, the small unfertilized pumpkin, at the base of a blossom, just turns yellow and falls off the vine. The photo to the right is a developing female blossom which will be opening for pollination within a few days. If I catch it on the right day, it could be a Thanksgiving decoration. I have been using a cotton swab to gather pollen from male flowers and then I brush the pollen onto the center of any open female blossoms. Maybe, I would be more successful if I put on a yellow shirt, and made a buzzing sound to the tune of a Barry White song?
It looks like there is only one pumpkin growing on any of the nine vines I have creeping along on the ground. It is that green oval at the top center of the photo to the right. More pumpkins may get started within the next few weeks; but that lone immature gourd-like-squash appears to be my only chance for a home-grown Halloween jack-o-lantern. I wonder if it will survive for another six weeks?
1 comment:
Sounds like an old John Belushi skit from Saturday Night Live.
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