Get your Q Tips out of the bathroom and meet me back here. You're going to learn how to hand pollinate plants. Because our friend the bee can only do so much and certain plants are notoriously bad pollinators. I'm looking at you cucurbits.
This is our friend the bee. You may know him by the name Busy. If it weren't for our friend Busy Bee, life would come to a screeching halt. Busy Bee pollinates all of the plants on earth.
That's his job.
And this time of year ... he's overtaxed trying to make it around to every flower on the planet. The bees can't keep up so sometimes things like squash, zucchini, pumpkins, and cucumbers need help.
You need to perform artificial insemapollination.
First a dire warning:
STOP PICKING YOUR ZUCCHINI AND SQUASH BLOSSOMS TO FRY YOU LUNATICS! These are the plant's only means for growing fruit. If you take them all (or even most of them) away then you aren't going to get any zucchini or squash.
Table of Contents
What are Cucurbits?
Members of the Cucurbitaceae family are vining plants with yellow flowers.
- Squash (both winter & summer)
- Gourds
- Pumpkins
- Cucumbers
- Melons
- Loofah
These plants have male and female parts on them in the form of flowers. In order for fruit to grow the plant needs to be cross pollinated from the male flower to the female flower.
Male Flower
Male flowers grow off of long thin stems. They have a long anther in the centre of the flower that holds pollen.
Female Flower
Female flowers have a thicker stem with a tiny unfertilized fruit below the flower. This is an immature fruit, which if pollinated will become a beautiful, edible squash, zucchini or cucumber. They have a short stigma at the centre of the flower.
Only female flowers produce fruit.
CUCURBIT TIP
If you're growing zucchini, squash or pumpkin you also need to watch out for squash vine borers, a maggoty grub that burrows into the stem of your plant and will, without a doubt, kill it.
If you have squash vine borer you can use this VERY effective way to eradicate the gross maggotty interloper.
In order to produce fruit on cross pollinated plants like zucchini and squash the male flower has to impregnate the female flower with its magical impregnating dust - pollen.
In nature, pollen from the male anther is picked up on the legs of a bee when a bee enters the flower to gather pollen. That bee then (hopefully) flies over to the female flower and roots around in there for a bit, depositing the male pollen from its legs onto the female flower's stigma.
BINGO! POLLINATION!
As with all fertilized females, within a short period of time ... she starts to swell, the fruit develops and grows into a lovely baby which you then eat.
If your female flower isn't pollinated, the little fruit behind it will go yellow, shrivel up and die.
If you're getting tons of baby fruit but they just die instead of maturing, it's because they aren't being pollinated.
How to Hand Pollinate Squash (and other cucurbits)
There are 3 ways you can hand pollinate your plants, but they're all based on the same premise. Getting the pollen from the male flower into the female flower.
You can either use a Q Tip, a small artists brush, or the actual male anthers.
- Just rub the Q Tip, or artists brush around the centre of the male flower and the anthers. There's lots of pollen on the inside of the flowers petals so don't forget to swipe there if you're running out of pollen.
- The pollen will stick to the Q Tip or brush.
- Then brush the female flower's stigma with the pollen.
If you have one to spare, you can also just pull off a male flower and use it to rub against the female instead of using a Q Tip or brush.
Provided all goes well and there are no complications, you'll be rewarded with the birth of squash, zucchini, or cucumber. If after a couple of days the fruit looks bigger and green you'll know you successfully impregnated a vegetable.
How to Hand Pollinate Plants
How to hand pollinate notoriously difficult cucurbit plants like squash, zucchini and pumpkins.
Tools
- Q Tip
- Small artists brush
Instructions
- Rub a Q Tip or artists brush around the centre of the male flower and the anthers. There’s lots of pollen on the inside of the flowers petals so don’t forget to swipe there if you’re running out of pollen. The pollen will stick to the Q Tip or brush.
- Brush the female flower’s stigma with the pollen dusted Q Tip. You may need to open up the female flower with your fingers.
- Don't pull all of your flowers off for making stuffed squash blossoms! Without any male and female blossoms on the plant you'll never get any squash!
Notes
Male flowers have a long skinny stem with no immature fruit bulge.
Female flowers have a shorter stem and the tiny fruit is clearly visible right below the flower.
You don't need to use a Q Tip or artists brush, you can just pull the male flower off, and pollinate directly with it.
Congratulations on your cucurbirth.
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Help! all my zucchini are male. I don't have any females - there aren't any baby zucchinis under the flowers. What to do?
Hi Vicky. Zucchini tend to produce male flowers first. The females will come. The plants also produce male flowers in very hot weather, not female. So if you planted late, and are now experiencing a lot of heat, that is why you only have male flowers - for the moment. The females will indeed show up. ~ karen!