I have been polinating my squash and zucchini flowers by hand for a while now.

Today I could not find one male flower on my zucchini plants, is it ok to use the squash ones if this happens or should I just wait for zucchini males to appear again?

It seems dumb asking this question, but I was puzzled this morning.

* * * *


For this "New Year" help me to be kinder and more loving to all around me, I pray.

If you cross pollinate it will not effect the fruit itself but rather the seed. You will get a hybrid plant from those seeds, if germinated.

* * * *

Sarah - Zone 5b/6

Soooo... from your info' here, it's ok to pollinate squash to zucchini and I'll still get the zucchini that I want, but if I'm gathering for seed I'll have something different? Am I right?

I just want the present zucchini flowers/fruit to grow well. I will not be doing this once I see more zucchini males.

* * * *


For this "New Year" help me to be kinder and more loving to all around me, I pray.

i take the male flowers (the ones with no fruit at the base) rip off some of the flower so it's easier to handle and then stick it in the female flower (the one with the fruit growing) and make sure some of the pollen gets in there. i'm sure the tons of bees do the job but i want to be sure so i go ahead and do it myself too.

When the bee population in your garden is too low for good fruit set, you can substitute for the bees by pollinating by hand. Hand pollination is a tedious chore, but if you really like squash and there are no bees in your garden, it's the only way you will be able to harvest a crop. You can use a small artist's paintbrush to transfer pollen, or you can break off a male flower, remove its petals to expose the pollen-bearing structure, and roll the pollen onto the stigma, the structure in the center of the female flower. The pollen is yellow and produced on the structure in the center of the male flower. Flowers open early in the day and are receptive for only one day. When hand pollinating, it's important to use only the freshly opened flowers. The female flower has a small fruit behind the flower. The male flower is long and slender.

Rose you may also want to plant hollyhocks somewhere in your garden next year. It draws all the bees in the neighborhood and then they stick around and pollinate everything else. I know it takes them two years to bloom. But you could put a couple of seeds in the ground now. Get foliage this year and blooms next year.

I had no idea we had this many bees in the neighborhood until I planted 3 hollyhocks last year. This year I had bees galore.

* * * *

I've been hand pollitating my zuccs for some tiem now. Have not cross pollinated...yet. But have seen some...the hybreds are both squash AND zucc, but taste like zucc. Very neat for kids to grow if you have any around the nieghborhood or in the home!!

I DO have picture of hand pollinating and the differamce between male and female. Go HERE:
and scroll down to the bottom part of the page.

Chrissy,

Your pictures are excellent! Thanks for sharing them with us.

This morning when I checked on my squash and zukes there was only 1 male squash flower for me to work with and 5 female flowers. Because of this stortage I've had to cross pollinate between the two fruits.

* * * *


For this "New Year" help me to be kinder and more loving to all around me, I pray.