When I started growing fruit vegetables in my patio, I didn't really warm up to the concept of manual pollination. To be honest, in all my years of gardening (at the farm that is), we never had to do any form of manual pollination ever! We had more than enough bees, butterflies, beetles and bugs to do the job. We literally left everything to nature without any human intervention.
So I had assumed that I could continue with my old ways at the new abode's high rise patio garden. Afterall, I often see ants, butterflies and an ocassional bee in our midst.
When my cucumber plants started producing tiny cucumbers attached to the flower, I was overjoyed. I thought they would simply mature into big succulent cucumbers until Petunia urged me to pollinate them manually.
I did it on two female flowers. One shrivelled up and died while the other one grew into a bulbous fruit.
So I had assumed that I could continue with my old ways at the new abode's high rise patio garden. Afterall, I often see ants, butterflies and an ocassional bee in our midst.
When my cucumber plants started producing tiny cucumbers attached to the flower, I was overjoyed. I thought they would simply mature into big succulent cucumbers until Petunia urged me to pollinate them manually.
I did it on two female flowers. One shrivelled up and died while the other one grew into a bulbous fruit.
The bulbous one.
The one that didn't quite make it.
Now I see the importance of manual pollination. In fact, doing it properly is the key. I keep my peeled on the plants these days. If I see a female flower, I'll grab a male one and do the deed right away. One cannot rely on the birds and bees anymore, I have to do the job (using the right technique) in order to enjoy the fruits of my labour.
ehhh...that's a pretty n chubby one...gd enough to eat? =)
ReplyDeleteHuier - Still too short. I think it will grow longer. Not sure how long I have to wait though cos it is the first time I am growing this.
ReplyDeleteHi Ting, it is wonderful to see keen gardeners like you using even patio to plant vegetable. The cucumber is looking healthy. What kind of fertiliser do you use for your vegetable plants?
ReplyDeleteStephanie - I use a combination of chicken manure, my own worm compost and lately, Neem Gold which is a kind of organic compost made from Neem leaves.
ReplyDeleteSo... you're like a vegetable Cupid?
ReplyDeleteCH - Well, you can say that I'm running a match making service in my garden but now I am faced with too many female flowers (3) waiting for pollination but I don't even have a single male flower in bloom. If this persists for another 2 days, my female cucumbers will shrivel up and die. Help!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the right manual pollinating technique? Just started a vegetable garden for the first time and there isn't a bee in sight!
ReplyDeleteHi Ting, just like Trisha, I am also curious about what is manual pollination.
ReplyDeleteHee..hee..I didn't know there's female and male flowers. How to differentiate them? Any significant sign to look out for?
Hi, where do you get neem gold from? also i'm interested in vermiculture. where do u get the worms?
ReplyDeleteI noticed there were more female flowers on my cucumber plant whent the plant had acidic ferterliser. Since I added seaweed fertiliser, I started to get lot more male flower(ones with cucumers at the end), so I am presuming you are having an opposite problem?
ReplyDelete