Yep... real rain and 2 days of nice cool temps till afternoon but Sunday may be over 100 so here we go again. The hottest it got in Texas when I was there was 103 F.
I have all the semps that i want to x set in the pairs or groups that I want to cross with each other. Have bags over some and yes there is more pollen under the bag. I am getting help from some small bumble bees. There do not seem to be any honey bees around here. I have watched the bees going from flower to flower and when the plants are in groups, the bees do work the group. But of course they can fly to another group and take pollen with them. I was curious whether there is any seed forming from this open pollination so I found an immature but brown seed pod on one that I do not want to save seed from and opened it. Sure enough ...some seed already forming but I needed a magnifying glass to see it. I am going to have to rely on the bees for some seed this year, as I was gone for a whole week. Then every week I am gone at least 3 days at market during the time when I should be doing the crosses. In the evening the stigma do not seem to be receptive. I am going to check early tomorrow morning before I leave at 8 am. I think it may still be too cold.
Is any one else keeping seed from bee crosses?
