I want to know how to manually pollinate musk melon, pumpkin, bitter gourd and cucumber flowers inside a poly tunnel, as I am not sure they are a parthenocarpic variety. Thanks in advance. Regards, Suresh.
Since these plants are all members of the cucurbit family, the procedure for pollination is similar. First, identify the male and female flowers. Cucurbit female flowers have a tiny unfertilized fruit at the base and contain a stigma, while the male flowers will contain stamens, as shown in the below article. The male flowers may begin to show up earlier than the female flowers.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/squash/female-male-squash-blossoms.htm
Then, follow these procedures to pollinate:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/melons/hand-pollinating-melons.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/cucumber/hand-pollinating-cucumbers.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pumpkin/hand-pollinate-pumpkins.htm
I found this green wire thing around my neighbor's plant. I have never seen it at the shops, like Home Depot or some local garden shops. What do you call it and where can you find it?
Wire plant supports are very handy in the garden!
They are quite easy to locate at local garden centers and greenhouses.
They come in many different sizes and I have seen numerous designs.
Google 'wire plant supports' and you will find lots of sources that you can also order direct.
Your website shows a rain gauge with large numbers that appears to be in millimetres only, on a white wire stand. Do you know where I can buy such a gauge? Many thanks, Chris James
Many rain gauges have inches on one side and mm on the other.
Do a Google search for 'rain gauge with mm measurement'.
You can find many sources of these type of rain gauges.
We just moved to a new house, and put up our wind chimes and the wind is heavy, the chimes tangled constantly. 1. How do we keep the wind chimes from tangling? We have lost a few chimes, could not untangle them. 2. Have the chimes on leftover Christmas plastic hangers. The underroof is metal with holes, we need different hangers for the chimes, but do not know what kind. Can you help us?
I would look for a new location for your wind chimes. Many times you can locate them in an easy to reach area, so that you can remove during high winds.
I've been answering some of the readers' gardening questions; however, I cannot see any pictures (or attachments or links) that the posters say are attached. What am I missing?
Some of these questions may simply be older ones coming from our email questions, while others may be due to people forgetting to attach or upload the image or link. Thank you for your help in answering and also in bringing this to our attention.
I have a Ficus plant for 30 years and want to send it along with Christmas cactus to my daughter in Idaho. Can I remove them from their pots and send them with just the dirt?
If you are sending the plants through mail, then this article should help: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/shop/shipping-live-plants.htm
If you plan on transporting them in a vehicle, try this article: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/relocate-plants-safely.htm
Hi Folks, I enjoy your emails and some are useful to me. However most of them are geared towards Zone 3 and the Northern states. I am in Zone 9 Central Florida. Do you only write about Northern gardening?
The newsletter is based off of recently published articles. We are working on building up articles on different zones. We will be working on zone 9 soon.