I tried my hand at pollination
October 23, 2008 at 7:58 am | Posted in Pollination, Purple tomatillos | 1 CommentI don’t think it went very well. This morning, I swirled a Q-tip around each open flower, but I took a really light hand and I didn’t see any pollen on the cotton.
I wonder if I didn’t choose the right time. I think it rained most of last night and I noticed the flowers weren’t quite as fully open as they usually are, say, in the middle of the day. Does this make a difference? I was also very careful; maybe I was too gentle?
pollination nerves
October 22, 2008 at 10:47 am | Posted in Pollination, Purple tomatillos, Tomatoes | 1 CommentI have several blooming flowers on my tomatillo. I’ve planned all along to hand pollinate the tomatillos and tomatoes. I’ve been a bit nervous about the process in general, though, so I did some more Googling. I came across several web sites that say tomatillos are not self-fertile. Ack! I only planted one! And the package says they do not cross-pollinate, so I thought I only needed one. I called up my trusty customer service at Seed Savers (I love them so much) and the lady looked something up and told me while there is a lot of confusion on the matter, tomatillos *are* self-fertile. So, I’m inclined to believe her but I’m still nervous I’m not going to get any tomatillos.
I’m still nervous about hand pollination in general. Any tips? I’m thinking about just taking a Q-tip (or should I really use a paintbrush?) and swirling it around each flower.
*sigh* Why does this have to be so hard? I just want my own tomatillos and tomatoes!
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