As you may know, I am on a mission to rectify the character of the zucchini. Others have joined me in this quest by adding their comments and posting on the zucchini too.
This week, as life returns to the profane from the profound, I am talking sex - zucchini sex in the form of artificial insemination or pollination more correctly. My zucchini has a problem - a serial failure to produce offspring. This has been going on for a while now, originally back on an earlier Zucchini Tuesday I posted about having consulted Dr Hessayon in the search for the answer to the problem. He proposed many possible causes but Liz and Jen sensibly suggested a simpler diagnosis - failure to fertilize.
As the problem continued I decided to take matters into my own hand (or finger) this morning and take on the role of the bee. I found myself a boy flower loaded with pollen.
And loaded my finger with some pollen - note the fetching thong in the background, thongs are essential equipment in the world of artificial insemination.
I even decided to try the same process on a female flower 'past its prime' to see what might happen.
So, let's see if a 'miracle' occurs and I am blessed with abundant fruit. Thankfully I wont have to wait too long to know if I have been successful in being the bee.
In the meantime I did pick some produce from Greenskin - here it is!
How are your zuccs? Have you had to be the bee? Anyone make a festive zucchini dish for the family over Christmas? Have you posted on zucchinis this week? If so link up, or add a comment below.
Best wishes for the New year to all - may your gardens flourish, flowers bloom and zucchinis pollinate.
My problem with 'finger' fertilising is trying to catch a male AND female flower open at the same time. The zuch in the ground is unfortunately in a fair bit of shade (damn the neighbour's pittosporums!) and the one in the pot, though healthy, isn't cooperating with one of each sex opening roughly, simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteOh, and those pittosporums? I could cry! They shade my best and first veggie bed that had perfect conditions but now.... They also suck all the goodness out from under the fence. I did casually mention it (through clenched teeth) to my neighbour the other day and her response was gee, haven't they grown, I'm sure they weren't meant to get THAT big!?
I am actually having much the same problem - not the shade - probably could do with more shade - but with male and female flowers opening at similar times. I pounced the other day when it did cure - I mentioned miracles in the post! Since then I have not been lucky.
DeleteI too am having pollination issues with zuccini also my squash and pumpkins. There are bee s in my garden but they dont seem to be doing much of a job. I pick the male flower peel the petal away and then manually fertilize the females , Ive used a male squash flower on my female zuccini worked out fine. My pumpkins are a different story so far only 3 pumpkin have continued to grow after pollination the rest swelled up then dropped off (im thinking this maybe from the recent bout of extreme heat) these pumpkin can apparently grow to 200kg so 3 is maybe more than enough.
ReplyDeleteHmm, bee problems! My pumpkins and melons and cucumbers haven't started flowering yet, although flower buds are in evidence. I am kind of resigned to hand/finger pollinating my cucurbits. Perhaps I need a mini bee hive?
DeleteIt is hard to know what number of pumpkins to encourage isn't it? If I get pumpkins I am dying to try to make pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin pie (American style) after a friend bought me the authentic spices.
I'm getting some fertilisation but not total so I think I will be waving some male flowers around liberally too. I did have enough to make some zucchini and feta fritters though and really enjoyed them
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with the bees this year? Glad you liked the fritters - they are my favourite dish with zucchini at the moment.
DeleteI am so happy to see the first greenskin growing happily at your place. I promise I will be back next week with a new recipe and photos of my zucchini looking so bright I have to just drag myself away from this sofa
ReplyDeleteYay, greenskin! Let's hope that those I pollinated worked! It's ok, stay on the sofa, I can understand the desire, it is the holiday season afterall. In fact while the temperatures continue to be in the high 30s that's exactly what I will be doing - too hot to garden.
DeleteYes we haven't had ANY fruit, so I'll have to educate myself on male and female flowers and do it for them too! But our new plants are doing so much better and just flowering now, so I won't wait for bees...
ReplyDelete