Why You Can (or Cannot) Plant Hybrid Seeds

If you buy seeds in bulk or at your horticulture store, chances are it will be hybrid seeds. The packets are usually marked F1 (1st generation).

Genetics, in particular traits selection, is very interesting. A rudimentary understanding of genetic inheritance can be by Mendel's Law of Inheritance:

 There are a few laws but this is the relevant one. F1 seeds are produced in the second level of the diagramme. All pumpkins produce will have uniform characteristics.

When you plant seeds taken out of an F1 pumpkin, the F2 vines will show parent characteristics that was supressed in F1. The expressed characteristics ratio is 3:1. Bear in mind this is simplification of genetic inheritance because the parent plants may bear a lot more characteristics that maybe passed but overlooked/unexpressed when F1 seeds were produced.

For better undertsanding, these characteristics were found in my (ripening) pumpkins:

The second is actually the smallest of all.

Seeds Galore

Hurray! My pumpkin seeds which I ordered through Amazon has been received by my cousin's (ex-)collegue in Michigan. I can't wait to get and plant them.

Update

It has been awhile since the last post. A few things had happened.

1. I have been jinxed again...my pumpkin flowers failed to be fertilised again. At least two of them dropped after being fertilised and the rest just dropped before blooming. At least I got seven new pumpkins as consolation.

2. My good uncle (bless him) went to spray herbicide using a motorised sprayer. The sprayer was super effective and the vapour actually settled on the corn seedlings. Some leaves actually yellowed and died. Those pesky weeds...did not die and/or cannot be burned. I am slightly miffed, I burn things and usually they burn.

3. My neighbour gave me his two huge clumps of serai peha ayam. these may be gargantuan lemon grass but as any good cook knows it is actually quite tasteless. Good cooks tend to avoid using this type of lemon grass. It is however good money.

4. I bought a sack of compost fertiliser (made out of oil palm waste) sold at a nursery. I decided to try it because I have planted some more pumpkins and the seedling seemed not to be growing properly. The area I have planted the pumpkins may be indeed very barren. The effect is positive so far.

5. I received my squash seeds from Kebun Bahagia Bersama, which came with some surprise sunflower seeds. It made my day as I received them together with 20 official Postcrossing postcards.

Lastly some pumpkins are starting to ripen and beginning to show some yellow discolouration after teasing me with orangish tinge. I finally figured out what kind of pumpkin breed we have in Malaysia ~ It's Jap/Kent.

Rambutan In Full Bloom

After considerable amount of fertiliser...

How To Pollinate A Pumpkin Flower

This is a male flower:

This is a female flower. As you can see, the immature unfertilised pumpkin is at the base of the petals:

I used to use a cotton bud to fertilise the female flowers but I found an easier way. You just pluck the male flower and tear off the petals to reveal the stamen:

Then you proceed to smear the stamen on the stigma of the female flower:

(The picture is blurry as I was hopping around in order to avoid red ants; nasty creatures, one actually bit me and cause my fingers to swell)

Sometimes you may find maggot like creatures in the stamen of the male flower. These are caterpillars (my mother said they are Lepidopterans) that eat the stamen. This particular kind is very tough. You have to exert some pressure in popping them:

Oil Palm Harvest

Today (and yesterday too) my uncle and I went to harvest the oil palm at Serdang (there is another Serdang town in Bandar Baharu District, Kedah). Oil palm bunches reach commercial size and productivity beginning at three years old. However they may start fruiting before that age but the fruit bunches are usually discarded as they are of no commercial value. Nevertheless some traders may buy it. Here in Parit Nibong, there is one. The bunches are weighted via a weighing ramp (the transport vehicle will be weighted with and without the bunches). The result: 290kg of fruit bunches being bought at RM500 per tonne. Not bad for a two-morning's work.

Welcome New Pumpkins!

I am excited that the vines are starting to produce new pumpkins. I was a bit worried a few weeks back because the female flowers were dying prematurely and/or unable to be fertilised. I read somewhere on the Net where one grower suggested that the vines should be kept short by cutting the shoots in order to overcome this problem. Had my grandmother cooked masak lemak putih pucuk labu. Delicious is the fruit of your labour. 

Anyway, the female flowers now are blooming, being hand-fertilised by yours truly and growing into young pumpkins (there are a few more but I don't want to jinx them):

Corns

I have just transferred my corn seedling to the bed. I was a bit frustrated the last time because no grew. Hopefully these nine seedlings will produce something nice corns:

Before And After

My pumpkin patch this month (as you can see the lemon grass is growing nicely):

Botsy, Her Brother & Cousins

Botsy today:

Her brother:

The cousins:

The First Pumpkin

The vines grew and produced flowers. First to bloom were the male ones and then came the females. I did what a first grower would do...manually fertilised the flower. The result: Botsy (after my first niece)

Then came Botsy's brother:

My Pumpkin Patch...The Beginning

I resigned from my last job on 20 December 2013. My resolution for the new year was to get involved with agriculture, specifically to manage the oil palm smallholding. As the palm were just starting to bear fruit, no income can be made out of the smallholding. Thus came the idea to utilise the plot of land next to the house.

Firstly I thought planting lemon grass was the easiest crop to begin with. Unfortunately it was the beginning a three-month's long drought that was to strike the whole of Malaya. As tolerant as it is to the drought, it was very hard to coax the lemon grass to grow. Hence the pumpkin patch idea...