Pollinating Squash Plants

 Back story:  I was talking to a wonderful lady at church about how my garden was doing, a few years ago.  She asked if I had any female squash flowers.  I must have given her that "What??" look.  She then started to explain male and female flowers.  It is so simple, and I thought I would share.  The top 2 pictures are of a male flower.  Pretty flower with a straight stem.  The bottom pictures are of a female squash plant.  They look like they have been pollinated, but they haven't yet....         And if you know the difference between a male and female flower you can hand pollinate them.

Male

Female

 To hand pollinate a female flower take the pedals off of a male flower.  Use the male flower like a paint brush to pollinate the female flower. 

 You can tell you have done it right if the flowers wilt by the next morning. 

Here is the squash that will grow from our hand pollinating. 



Present time:  I'm so glad I learned how to do this.  I have seen a few bees pollinating the squash flowers, but not as many as last year.  There have not been as many bees in the garden at all.  Scary though.  No bees meas no produce.



I did this to a Spaghetti Squash, but this will work for all squash plants, cucumbers, and pumpkin plants.