The story about pumpkin seeds, from which I still have eyes on my forehead
I knew that a friend respects pumpkin seeds very much, but so-a-ak!
His story
About ten years ago I saw pumpkin seeds at the market. Asked the price. “Wow! - I thought. - What a high cost! Than to pay such mad money, I will try to grow it myself. "
And he began to plant pumpkins. First year! Pumpkins are great, but there are about twenty seeds. In grams, this is, at most, 20-30 g. The second year is the same story.
I began to think about how to get hold of the necessary seeds (pome pumpkins). And so and so - few seeds are obtained in the fall, and the season is lost! And then it dawned on me? We must go to the market!
At the bazaar, I asked the seller for permission to choose seeds for seeds, but did not allow them. I had to be cunning. And I asked another seller not for seeds, but for a sample. If you like the taste, I'll buy it for food. The woman the seller allowed. At a distance, I chose seeds of different shapes. Only three pieces.
I felt happy only the next year. When I harvested and saw how many seeds there were in the cut pumpkins! Each pumpkin produced 150 to 200 g.
But after two years, I realized that pumpkins were being pollinated and turned into completely different varieties. They change their shape and quality of seeds. I thought about the purity of the variety. But I keep making mistakes. I still can't save pumpkins.
But how to protect the variety? After all, you cannot forbid bees to pollinate all pumpkin flowers. After swimming in the pollen of neighboring pumpkins, they come to us.
From the author
Don't think that your friend has made only mistakes for 10 years. He recently collected 306 g of seeds from this pumpkin!
It's a pity he didn't talk about his problem earlier. I would suggest. Pumpkins can be manually pollinated early in the morning! He is such that he will use this method.
It is also surprising that he does not respect the pulp at all, distributes it! And from the bones it makes milk, like here described.
How to pollinate a pumpkin flower to get the right seed variety
We are talking about seeds for planting next year. If you are very scrupulous, you can leave one female flower on the main stem of the mother bush (so that it is from this plant that you take seeds for sowing). Tear off the rest of the flowers.
Experienced gardeners know what a pumpkin flower looks like, ready to open the next day. His petals are already slightly open. Similarly, we look after a male flower ready to open on another pumpkin bush of the same variety. As a last resort, you can take a male flower from the same bush. Or use 2-3 male flowers.
We close the tips of the petals with a clothespin so that the bees don't fly in and the wind doesn't blow pollen. For both male and female flowers.
In the morning we cut off the male flowers and bring them to the female. We carefully remove the clothespins, starting with the female. We open the female flower (he himself does not mind), and remove the petals from the male ones. We poke the stamen into the female pistil. After that, close the female flower again with a clothespin. If everything worked out, the pumpkin will begin to grow clearly.
And for you in a pumpkin, what is more valuable: bones or pulp?
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