Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Pumpkin theory #2, then #3

Something else occurred to me, which is that there aren't many insects on my balcony, therefore maybe my pumpkins aren't getting pollinated properly.

Ok, no problem. I can pollinate them by hand.

Then as I was looking at the buds, it occurs to me that some buds have a round bulge at their base, but most do not. Therefore maybe the rounded ones become pumpkins, and the others do not. But so far this year, all the buds with bulges have either spontaneously fallen off, been damaged by traffic near the plant, or been cut off because the stems were broken (again, traffic). So, maybe my pumpkins don't fruit because they're disturbed too much. I'd be surprised though, given how touch the leaves, stems and flowers are, why would the fruit be the only fragile part of the whole plant?

Clealy, this needs more research.

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