Hand-pollinating squash, really? YES!

You may be asking, why would I need to know how to hand pollinate? The short answer is, if you don’t have bees in your garden to pollinate, you won’t have any squash. So, it’s up to you to play this role.

All summer and winter squash (pumpkin, zucchini, butternut, acorn, spaghetti, gourds etc.) and cucumbers produce separate female and male flowers. Pollen from the male flower must cross-pollinate with the female in order for the fruit to develop. Both flowers produce nectar to attract bees and other pollinators. That way they will transfer the pollen from flower to flower as they collect the nectar.

In the absence of bees, and other pollinators in your garden, your option is to do the pollination yourself by transferring pollen from one flower to another to ensure successful fertilization.

Male Flowers: the stem is long and thin, at the center of the blossom you’ll see a long and narrow pollen-covered appendage sticking out (called the “anther”). There are usually a lot more male blossoms than females.

Female Flowers: you will notice a tiny ‘baby’ squash just below the blossom instead of a stem. This is a swollen “embryonic fruit” at the base, which will become the actual fruit if pollinated. The female flower center is wider (called the “stigma”). It almost looks like a mini flower itself.

There must be at least one of each type of flower on the plant to have pollination, if you have all male flowers you’ll have to wait for another day when a female is in bloom. To ensure available blooms, if you have the space, it’s a good idea to plant more than one (I’ll often have 4-5 zucchini and several cucumbers each season).

HOW TO POLLINATE

Be gentle with the female in the process. Never pinch, twist, or damage it in any way, or it could fall off the plant.

How often and when should you pollinate? I recommend checking for open flowers every time you are in the garden, at least a couple of times a week. While you can pollinate any time during the day, the best time is in the morning after the dew has dried. This is when the flowers are fully open, flowers begin to close in the heat of the day and fully close in the evening. Some will only be open one day.

Male flowers will be more abundant and the first you will see on the plant. To get more female flowers on your plants, consistent watering is key. Never allow the soil to dry out completely or remain too wet. As mentioned, it’s a good idea to plant at least two of the same plant so you have a better chance of flowers opening on both.

It may be concerning when what looks like a young squash turns yellow or black and falls off the plant. It is most likely the unfertilized “embryonic fruit”, the baby squash of the female flower, this will shrivel and fall off if unpollinated.

This blackening can sometimes be confused with a condition called blossom-end rot, which is caused by environmental drought, freezing, and other stressors. It’s most often seen on tomatoes but can afflict squash as well.  It’s not a disease caused by fungi, bacteria, or other pathogens. Blossom-end rot is easily identified as a brown, leathery rot developing on or near the blossom end of a more developed fruit. It’s caused by a lack of calcium, either there is not enough in your soil, or the plant is not able to uptake and transport the calcium from the soil due to draught stress from infrequent watering extremes. To remedy, be sure to irrigate regularly and evenly, and fertilize with organic slow-release fertilizer with a higher Phosphorus percentage. Bone meal is a great source for Phosphorus, adding this to your soil will solve blossom-end rot.

What about cross pollination to different varieties of squash or cucumbers?  Will this produce strange looking vegetables? Think about it, bees flying around your garden may land on the male flower of butternut squash then go to a female flower of a zucchini. The result will be a normal zucchini, but you wouldn’t want to plant seeds from that zucchini – the mixed traits of the cross pollination will show in the second generation. And only plants that are members of the same botanical species can cross pollinate. So if I only have flowers available on different squash plants (green zucchini and patty pan squash for example), I go ahead and use them. I figure too there is no loss, without pollination that day the flower wilts anyway. I’d rather eat a cross-pollinated zucchini than have nothing at all!

Happy pollinating! Buzzzzzz