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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Love the pictures! I tell Mr. B I am going out to tickle my cucumbers...leave 'em guessing :-)
Hilarious. I think you might need a mature rating for this post. And for the iphone hoo hammock.
P.S. when I'm ready to explain 'the birds and the bees' to my daughter, I'm pulling up this post as a tutorial.
Well, now, I just feel dirty...vegetable porn, who knew?!
A lady I used to work with and I were just reminiscing yesterday about our long gardening discussions about wind gardens, corn salad (have you ever grown that? a delicious leafy green) and how she had helped her corn fertilize itself.
I am going to head outside now to play fertility doc with my zuchinni!
Ha! We did the same with our pumpkin. In fact, The Boyfriend was probably a little TOO in to it. So, now every time he goes out to the garden I tell him to take protection ;). It worked though, we've got two beautiful pumpkins!
Well done Karen!
My gardens have been over-run with the stupid little red beetley-doo-dad-things from hell. Not sure what their purpose is, but they multiply to beat the band...so today in frustration, I sprayed them with sun-tan oil. They didn't like it at all.
I only got one lovely yellow tomato and a small purple tomato from my seeds. I can support a family of NONE. whaaaa.
I have always wondered how to do this. I will really use this nfo. Great post. I want more "babies" too.
I like your style, lady. I never know what I'm going to get when I visit your blog. :)
I have never looked at growing squash that way. I always found it easier and more convenient to get them at the grocery store. But that is just as much fun now is it.
It's like you read my mind, I was thinking about this the other day with my pumpkin plants I've kept them alive, but no pumpkins, seriously you have no idea how much effort I have invested in this pumpkin plant. Alright off to balcony to knock up a pumpkin! (I've even planted it in a container so that I can bring it inside to get a darn pumpkin out of the plant!)
I had no idea!! This is the best post ever. Even though like yourself my Acorn Squash got owned by Squash Borers. It was replaced with lettuce which is much happier.
Awesome job Karen...as always!
Lovely acorn squash! How satisfying after all that worked against you.
And your female to male flower ratio is typical of cucurbits, just as in many parts of the world, woman outnumber the men. And as you may expect, those fewer men are happy to stick their stamens about, you know, in the service of womankind.
Ah, squash vine borers, cucumber beetles and squash bugs. All the same pests we enjoy much further south. I have started to grow everything under covers. I found some greenhouse screening that you can buy by the foot and I built PVC covers for my raised beds. So of course, I have to hand pollinate. But I find that uncovered, bees flock to my curcurbits. They even buzz at the covered crops, like they are angry they can't get to them.
BTW-I planted loufa gourds this year for the first time. I have many large ones on the vines now, just waiting to mature enough to become great bath scrubbers. But what I love is that they seem to be ignored by most of the pests and they flower like nothing else in the curcurbit family. Every morning they are covered with bright sunny yellow flowers by the tons. But they do need a long warm growing season to mature those prickly scratchy insides.
Ann - They do. I've never been able to grow them complete to that point. Close .. but not complete. I start them indoors and they don't seem to like transplanting very well. They seem to go into a little bit of shock and don't establish for almost a month! Direct seeding outdoors under a cloche or something might be the way to go. ~ karen!
Whew, I need a cigarette! Then when I thought it was ok to let my granddaughter in - you posted the VaJJ cam shot. Who needs XXX films when we have you!
This is the best explanation ever on how to get this done! I had to do this with all my squash and zucs this year... I think the bees were busy with other things.
I remember you mentioning your zucchini plant being obscenely profilic and the photos of these blossoms reminded me of something.
I once had squash blossoms that had been dipped in a tempura batter and deep fried. They were amazing with a flavor like popcorn, but with a much more wonderful texture.
I wonder if the same thing couldn't be done with some of the zucchini blossoms, thus averting the need for dumping, I mean sneaking, bushels of excess zucchini onto the porches of neighbors and friends.
I, unfortunately, do not have a recipe, but that's the sort of thing we turn to you for now, isn't it? ; ) Just a thought.
Yeah, you can use zucchini blossoms for that too. But my zucchini plants all up and died. ~ karen
I think I need a cigarette.... ~ Johonna
Karen, I am never disappointed with you!