Cantaloupes: Follow Up

Ok...that was pretty interesting. Eyeballing for a female flower, connecting it to a male flower on the same plant was simple enough. The next part is quite a delicate process: the removal of the male flowers' petals. The petals I snip off with the manicure scissors. Then there is left a firmer green outer sheath that within lies the area the pollen is on. Very gently, I peel this away to reveal an 1/8 inch diameter, 1/4 inch long ...thing. I still do not know the scientific name for this part. (sorry) Then I take this and insert it gently into the female flowers center, hopefully pollinating the flower. I now fully understand that this area is just too small for a bumble bee to do the job. In a few days I will see whether the first flowers took...either the tiny fuzzy female part will begin to grow or begin to turn yellow and fall off the plant.

The steps I took were written in present tense because every morning I hunt for female flowers and repeat the process in hopes that I may have a crop of cantaloupes.