watermelon

landarch 6/13/2012, 9:29 pm

Watermelons must have both male and female flowers...lots of small yellow blooms and then a handful of this type...an unopened blossom with what looks like the beginning of a melon. Is this a female? Does the flower need to open and be polinated to form a real melon?
watermelon Waterm10

littlejo 6/13/2012, 9:41 pm

Yes! It's a female. And yes, it must open and be pollinated. There are male blooms too. The bees/bugs should handle this.

Jo

landarch 6/13/2012, 9:49 pm

littlejo wrote:Yes! It's a female. And yes, it must open and be pollinated. There are male blooms too. The bees/bugs should handle this.

Jo

Thanks for the info...so if it gets polinated it will grow into a melon...and if not, it will die and drop-off? Bumble bees just showed up in the native flower garden this past week...hopefully they spend some time on the watermelon vines.

A fair portion of my tomato blossoms that have not produced a tomato...flowers witherd and fell off...not sure if it's a pollination issue or something else.

southern gardener 6/13/2012, 9:52 pm

you can also pollinate by "hand". Get a small paintbrush, and get some of the pollen from the open male flower, and brush it on the open female flower. Seems like the flowers are open in the morning, then close up late morning. Good luck!!

landarch 6/13/2012, 9:54 pm

southern gardener wrote:you can also pollinate by "hand". Get a small paintbrush, and get some of the pollen from the open male flower, and brush it on the open female flower. Seems like the flowers are open in the morning, then close up late morning. Good luck!!

I'll need to keep an eye on the female flowers then...I don't think any of them have opened yet...plenty of male flowers open right before sundown this evening. I also need to look for my brushes. Thanks for the tip.

littlejo 6/13/2012, 11:08 pm

With the tomato plants, when the flowers open'before they wilt' come by and give the bush a gentle shake. This should do the trick for the tomatoes. Bees can also do the pollinating.

Early morning is usually when the female watermelon opens.

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