{"id":550,"date":"2011-04-26T13:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T13:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/04\/operation-pumpkin-pollination-2011.html"},"modified":"2011-04-26T13:53:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T13:53:00","slug":"operation-pumpkin-pollination-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/04\/operation-pumpkin-pollination-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"Operation PUMPKIN POLLINATION 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2009 I had tried hand-pollinating pumpkins for the first time<\/a>.  (If you click the link, make sure to start at the bottom and work your way up, the posts are appearing in reverse chronological order).  After seeing award-winning pumpkins at the NC and NE State Fairs, I wanted to learn more about how one gets a 1000 lb. pumpkin…<\/p>\n

I was surprised this weekend at all the buds that were appearing on my pumpkin plants and decided to give it a go again this year.  I had my first two female flowers open up this morning, and there are at least 4 more that will be opening up this week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Two male flowers.  These guys are about 8″ across, attracting all sorts of bugs!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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One of the female flowers.  Note the “stigma” in the center, looks different than the male flower above.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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A view of the bulb behind the flower.  If pollination is successful, that bulb grows into a pumpkin.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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To hand-pollinate, you select a male flower, remove the petals, and get the powdery stuff on the stamen in contact with the stigma on the female flower.  I didn’t photograph the actual pollination, but you can see a 2009 version here<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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This bee might have been a step ahead of me, there was plenty of wildlife around to take care of things if I had missed those flowers opening.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2009 I had tried hand-pollinating pumpkins for the first time.  (If you click the link, make sure to start at the bottom and work your way up, the posts are appearing in reverse chronological order).  After seeing award-winning pumpkins at the NC and NE State Fairs, I wanted to learn more about how one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[620,84,85],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-8S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":375,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/07\/matchmaker-matchmaker-make-me-a-match.html","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":0},"title":"Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match….","date":"14 July 09","format":false,"excerpt":"I have this incredibly HUGE pumpkin plant taking over my backyard...From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin PollinationAnd that's just the part of the one plant that's come through the fence and is actually bleeding into the front yard!Anyway, I've grown pumpkins in the past and the best I traditionally do is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"gardening\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2707,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/10\/pumpkin-carving-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":1},"title":"Pumpkin Carving Time!","date":"29 October 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Better late than never, right? Timmy and I enjoyed carving our four pumpkins this afternoon. I'm so proud of Timmy, this year he offered to do\u00a0everything but got really nervous about gutting the pumpkins. So I did it for him...because I'm a sucker for that stuff.","rel":"","context":"In \"halloween\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_2829","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSC_2829-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":379,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/07\/pumpkin-and-hops-updates.html","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":2},"title":"Pumpkin and Hops Updates","date":"22 July 09","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, a week after the artificial insemination, here's what we have for a pumpkin so far:This is about 1.5 lbs. and about 10\" circumference. I'm so excited at this!Unfortunately, the next several female flowers haven't been opening up, but they can be really sensitive to amounts of water\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"gardening\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":376,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/07\/and-we-have-pumpkinage.html","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":3},"title":"…And We Have PUMPKINAGE!","date":"17 July 09","format":false,"excerpt":"I consider this a success:Before:From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin PollinationAfter:From 2009 07 14 Pumpkin PollinationIf the pollination hadn't \"taken\", the bulb behind the flower would have yellowed and fallen off the vine by now. This was about 52 hours after the pollination, and the bulb has at least doubled in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"gardening\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/07\/pumpkin-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":4},"title":"Pumpkin #2","date":"26 July 09","format":false,"excerpt":"No other female flowers pending at the moment.","rel":"","context":"In \"gardening\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":477,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/10\/gettin-in-the-halloween-spirit.html","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":5},"title":"Gettin’ in the Halloween Spirit","date":"25 October 10","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend we finally took some time to get into the Halloween spirit. Friday we went to the Bellevue Pumpkin Patch to choose the family pumpkins, then the boys had a chance to wear their Halloween costumes both Saturday and Sunday.First of all, if you like this picture below, then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"halloween\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh5.ggpht.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/TMRaFr3qZ5I\/AAAAAAABMa0\/O_Zufdd0T-0\/s400\/IMG_4610.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}