During my daily reads I noticed that Christa over at http://cc-calendula.blogspot.com/ was sporting a nice sized melon on her blog. I was very shocked because last week when I read her blog where she posted her baby watermelon pic, I was saying to myself "I have one of those too!" but mine shriveled up and died a few days ago (RIP baby mel). So as I'm reading her blog I realize that there is some fertilization/pollination/plant-sex type of activity that needs to go on before any melons can be born and that, much to my surprise, what I THOUGHT was a baby melon, was just a swollen "ovary" - GROSS!
So I did more research and then the pieces started falling into place. Ohhhhhhh there are boy and girl blooms - THAT'S why they look different! Ohhhhhhh, THAT'S why people are complaining about not seeing bees (i thought they were nuts). Ohhhhhhh that's why it turned black and died!
And since I too have seen no bees, I'll be setting out on a mission to artificially inseminate my watermelon starting tomorrow. I have to say I'm fairly grossed out by this whole thing, but I do love watermelon and it is my favorite thing in the garden and it's only right that it bear fruit, yes?
Yep, bees are a big deal, much needed in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI once toured a greenhouse at Epcot and there was a worker there hand pollinating cucumbers because there were no bees in the greenhouse, naturally. It's all part of nature.
Hi Gina,
ReplyDeleteYou gotta love watermelons to go to that far ! Just kidding. Good luck with the pollinating.
Don't forget to join in the Garden Bloggers Muse Day tomorrow, July 1.