[orflo]

Hi,
I would like to share some hand-pollinating tricks I figured out the last few years. If you grow different varieties of melon in a small space, try this: take some drywall plugs, size:1centimeter, cut off the front part until you get a small "pipe" of about 13 millimeters, fill up the little hole that remains on the cut side (you could use a bit of tape or...), and there you have a long lasting device (years) that fits perfectly on male and female flowers. I always use the same plugs on the same varieties ,the plugs are easily marked.
If you have different varieties ofsquash that you want to save seed from, use old inner tyre of bicycles ,cut them into pieces about 10 centimeters long ,put a bit of tape on one side, or use the repair kit to glue this side, make a few lenghtwise cuts in the other,open hole, that makes it easier to pass the tyre over the flower, they fit perfectly over the qsuash flowers, they last for years, and it's a good way to recycle things. They are also easily marked or scratched so varieties and tyres won't get mixed up.
Orflo