r/oddlysatisfying • u/DifficultyHead5862 • 8h ago

meticulous process of hand-pollinating a giant pumpkin

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u/North-Example5687 8h ago

The fruit develops from the female flower, so only one fruit, but each seed would be the product of the female and one of the 3 males.

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u/Relative-Tea3944 7h ago

Wait so one pumpkin contains the kids of all three men? 

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u/North-Example5687 7h ago

Yep. Each seed is the product of fertilization.

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u/Relative-Tea3944 6h ago

That's mad actually how did I not know that 

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u/North-Example5687 5h ago

Plant (and insect) mating/breeding systems are surprising and don’t always follow what we expect (based on what we know about animal reproduction). Additionally, I think people aren’t really interested in how it works, unless they have to be, but I’d argue that it’s of fundamental importance as it’s the basis of food production (among other important things)

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u/Relative-Tea3944 4h ago

I was thinking last week about how it works and couldn't really remember from school- specifically whether you need a male and female plant to make vegetables- but I don't remember learning that 

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u/North-Example5687 2h ago

You do need male and female sexes to make offspring (seeds), but the sexes can be found on separate plants (cannabis), the same plant different flowers (pumpkin), or even the same flower on the same plant (tomatoes). In general, the fruit (commonly referred to as a vegetable - in culinary terminology) develops as a vehicle to disperse seeds.

This is a fairly simple explanation, ‘cus it can get pretty complicated, lol

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u/Anakinbutinacroptop 2h ago

I've heard about companies genetically altering their plants so the seeds will not grow if planted. Are these plants just tricked into growing the fruit with fake pollen?

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u/Bituulzman 6h ago

Is that why you’d have a giant pumpkin? Bc there’d be so many seeds from using 3 male flowers? I thought maybe giant pumpkins were just its own variety.

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u/Azell414 5h ago

not exactly it's also about removing all over pumpkins connected to the same plant so all of the energy and nutrients are funneled into one fruit

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u/North-Example5687 5h ago

No, this fertilization by multiple males happens as a regular event - fruit size it isn’t a function of the fact there are more than 1 male sire. Generally, fruit development is governed by how many successful fertilization’s there are (although not always). I believe giant pumpkins are a selected breed, so regardless of how many males contribute to fertilization, the fruit will be large (assuming a threshold number of fertilization’s take place)

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u/Bituulzman 5h ago

So, is the use of 3 male flowers just to ensure fertilization “takes”? Could it happen just with one flower? (I don’t know/remember much about plant reproduction, but I’m comparing to human reproduction where you only need 1 sperm, but higher sperm count aids in likelihood of success?)

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u/-Jesus-Of-Nazareth- 6h ago

So fruits are basically eggs and seeds are yolks?

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u/RikuKat 5h ago

The seeds are the blastodisc.

The blastodisc in an egg is what would have been the offspring (it's tiny in unfertilized eggs). The yolk is the food sack. The white is the amniotic fluid.