Melon and zuchinni pollination

[chickenwhisperer]

Hi all, I have pumpkin, cantelope, watermelon, and 3 kinds of zuchinnis growin like crazy right now, good long vines with tons of flowers...
However, all the flowers seem to be male so far.

I have found only one female flower bud on one of the watermelon plants.

Brief background:
plants were bought at homedepot in 4" pots
trnsplanted into 5g pots in beginning of may/end of april(ish)
plants are in containers
good vegetative growth
tons and tons of male flowers on each plant


Am I just not being patient?
Do they start producing male flowers before females?
I will find(hopefully) female flowers near the growing ends, correct?

 

[digitS']

Other than some of the hybrid summer squashes, they are like robins - the males show up first.

The plant doesn't take any chances with the female flowers. They develop in the best locations on the vines, in their own time.

Looking for something definitive, I learned about those hybrid squash and got some info on hand-pollination. I thought that since you are in "Downtown Sacramento" chickenwhisperer, there may not be a lot of bees around. Then, I realized that you are in the Sacramento valley. It seems like there would have to be a ton of bees just about everywhere!

But, here's the resource: Fruit Set Problems in Squash, Melons, and Cucumbers, UC, Riverside (click).

Steve

 

[grow_my_own]

I had the richest soil I've ever had in my life when we lived in downtown Sacramento! I could just throw seeds outside and water them & just wait. Food would grow. It was the most fertile soil ever. When we moved up here, I wanted to bring my soil with me (no lie).

I also had a lot of male flowers show up first on my zucchinis and pumpkins this year, and now I am getting fruits. In fact, one "volunteer" pumpkin plant I have already spreads out about 6-8 feet in all directions and has (get this) *17* baby pumpkins on it already! And it's a volunteer that grew from a seed that fell out of a pumpkin I fed my chickens last fall when they used to forage on this side of the yard!

Be patient... the veggies will show up soon.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

So I have noticed some bees, and lots of other flying insects including flies in my garden, not a lot of bees but I see at least one once a day...
This has been troubling me, and caused me to research hand pollination, which I have been doing for my tomatos and peppers with visible results(all the plants have gone from 1-5 fruits with lots of flowers that die unpollinated, now 2weeks later all flowers are turning into fruits on tomato/pepper plants), at least it seems like my hand pollinating is working but it could just be the natural course of events...

So thats what made me go on youtube over the weekend and watch some stepxstep instructional vids for my melons/squash.
And thats when I discovered I have no female flowers...

It all boils down to the bees... or lack thereof

Fwiw, this house has been in my family for years, now its mine... it has been a rental as long as Ive been alive(35) and I believe for a long time before that too.
There probably hasnt been a garden or flowers here for at least that long, lotsa unpruned trees tho that Im workin on...
My soil was hardpack clay, I spent the last year actively composting all mine and my neighbors yardwaste in anticipation for this garden, without that compost I couldnt have grown squat.... even the front lawn is mostly just crabgrass and even that is barely hanging on(my next big project is landscaping, I just am finishing up a complete remodel)
I am doubling my efforts to make compost this year, because I wanna use 2-3x as much for next year, as my soil is still extremely clayish, and if I dont continually top with rabbit dropping to loosen it up, it compacts right down into hardpack again, and Ill most probably end up having to buy some new topsoil as well anyways.

As it is, I am having my best luck with my container garden, and actually only have 2 tomato plants and my corn still in the ground...

I dont think the bees know to come here... does that seem logical, or ridiculous?

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Oh, and since we are on the subject, can anybody tell me what zone downtown sac is in?
When I look at the maps of the zone breakdowns, it seems to me that sac county is an island of one zone surrounded by another?
Am I lookin at the wrong map?
Please tell me...
Thanks guys!

 

[silkiechicken]

Put in some forget me nots or other bee attracting flowers in pots. They'll find you pretty fast and tell their buddies where the goods are.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Thats a GREAT idea!
That just jogged loose a memory of my old neighbors a long time ago planting I wanna say lavander for that very reason...
Man why cant I think of that myself....

Thankyou silkiechicken!

 

[chickenwhisperer]

So its a week later now, and heres a little update, cause I know everybody is on the edge of their seats over my pollination efforts...

Got myself a pot of lavander and a pot of catmint to attract bees, there were bees all over both plants at the nursery...
The next day, I started to see more bees!!!

Just went out to give my garden some love, and I actually found 2-3 female flowers on each watermelon and cantelope plant, still none on the zuchinni and pumpkin tho...
So I found the best, stickiest-pollin-lookin male flowers and rubbed them all over the female flowers...
Hopefully I was successful!

As a side note, my green tomatos are finally turnin red, got 10 kinds of peppers that are ready for pickin with more and more comin in, and my strawburries are going nutso with my new tea recipe...

Today, I am a happy gardener!!!

 

[digitS']

Good pictures!

Oh, and since we are on the subject, can anybody tell me what zone downtown sac is in?
When I look at the maps of the zone breakdowns, it seems to me that sac county is an island of one zone surrounded by another?
Am I lookin at the wrong map?
Please tell me...
Thanks guys!

I missed this earlier post, CW.

Those USDA zones are government things and have to do with the coldest days of winter. So, the zones are for perennials like orange trees & rhododendron bushes and whether they can survive a winter in any particular location.

The USDA now has its own zip code search. I just picked a Sacramento zip code at random: 95816. Plugging that in, I got 9b.

Steve

It might help if I included a link to the zip code search :

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

 

[so lucky]

Thanks for that link, digitS'. Now it's official: I'm in zone 6b. Only about a hundred degree span of temps.:/