How to hand pollinate squash blossoms?

[TomatoNut95]

I have 6 green zucchini plants and 6 yellow scallops all planted in the same bed. Both squashes have buds on them about ready to open. But I have not had any bee activity in my garden, and I'm afraid I may need to hand polinate.

Question 1: I have one female Scallop bud and 3 male buds that look like they'll be open by tomorrow. How many of the male blossoms should I use on the female blossoms to ensure good pollination?

Question 2: I have one and only one female zucchini bud that will be open but there are no male zucchini blossoms to be opened at the same time. Can I pollinate the zucchini blossom with a Scallop to get it to grow or will that not work? It'd be a shame to lose that zucchini if I can't get it to grow.

[applestar]

- I usually use 2 male blossoms if available. Just cut male flower with long stem, remove the surrounding calyx and petsls, and use like a paintbrush. I brush around, then cut the stem short and leave in the female blossom so any insects that come by will also rub the pollen off and assist. *Also, this way bees, and others that need them. will be able to harvest the pollen grains. (They will come back again later if they think your garden is worth visiting)

- Both zucchini and scallop are C.pepo and can be pollinated with each other’s pollen — since these are harvested immature, it won’t make any difference — just don’t try to - allow to mature and - save seeds from resulting fruits (unless you want to experiment )

[TomatoNut95]

Okay, great!; thanks @appletstar! I will attempt that if the blossoms don't get flattened by the upcoming storm. I just hope it worked this time, the last time I tried hand-pollinating, the immature squash grew for just a bit then died and dropped off.

Lol, no I don't plan to save any seed from the squash, I have yet to master the art of saving seed from anything else other than tomatoes anyway. These squash are strictly for eating this year....but that makes me curious as to what a zucchini and Scallop cross would look like... would I get a longer looking yellow/green splotched Scallop squash, ha-ha?!

[TomatoNut95]

Okay, I used two male Scallop blossoms on the one female Scallop, and one on the zucchini. I left the male flowers in the female flowers, I'm hoping for successful pollination. Still no sign of bees, it's cloudy outside right now, usually bees don't come out much when it's cloudy.

[imafan26]

If you want to increase the number of pollinators in your yard, then plant more nectar plants to attract them. Beneficial insects need host and nectar plants and they will reward you with a bountiful garden and fewer pests for you to deal with and you won't have to do as much hand pollination unless you want to. My bee population has almost recovered to pre-2011 levels. Still, I usually do plant parthenocarpic zucchini and cucumbers for the most part. I prefer seedless cucumbers and Suyo is the most disease and heat tolerant cucumber for me and it is parthenocarpic. I used to be able to grow zucchini fine but with global warming, I started having issues with zucchini producing only male flowers or the blooms were not in sync for good polination. I usually only have one plant. It takes up a lot of room and I don't need two plants. I get better results with a parthenocarpic zucchini although, I still have issues with fruit flies. This time, I am planting pic 'n pic instead. I have had better luck with the smaller summer squash.

[TomatoNut95]

It didn't bother me to hand-pollinate. I had to do so again this morning, but I ran out of male flowers before I got finihsed, so two zucchini's didn't get pollinated.

I don't normally mess with a lot of flowers. I might have a few during the springtime, but when it gets hotter outside, I tend to let my flowers die off and I conserve water for just the edible stuff. Do marigolds attract bees? I bet I could get some of those easy, and they'd be easy to care for to. I do have some lavendar, but it's not growing.

[aaardvark]

On that point of planting other flowers to attract pollinators... what if you observe lots of bees pollinating the flowers but never see them around the tomatoes, squashes, chiiies, other flowering edible plants? Should I be concerned the big rhododendron flowers are TOO enticing and the smaller fruit flowers are being ignored? Or is that crazy and I'm just missing seeing the bees around the other plants? Would you hand pollinate the squashes in this case?

[TomatoNut95]

Tomatoes and peppers don't need bees in order to produce. Tomato and pepper flowers are 'perfect' flowers which means they self-polinate without any help. If you do not see bees visiting your squash blossoms, you will need to hand-pollinate in order to get squash. Is your rhododendron near your garden?

[applestar]

Different kinds of bees and pollinators visit different kinds of flowers. Some are more interested in nectar and some are more interested in pollen. And some will visit all or most of those flowers while others have specific preferences.

I would say solanacea like tomatoes, chilies, eggplants (aubergines? to you?) tend to be visited more by sweat bees and hoverflies and maybe bumblebees on occasion rather than honeybees. The solanacea blossoms have evolved to release pollen when buzzed by these flying insects. They clutch the down-facing blossom and buzz or whirr their wings so that the pollen will fall on their fuzzy abdomen. If you have never tried buzzing them with an electric toothbrush, you are in for a treat. Do it on windless day when the sun is shining at an angle so you can see the burst of pollen fall and stream from the blossom. The part of the blossom that receives the pollen is directly inside or below the anthercone so it’s more likely for the blossom’s own pollen to pollinate, but visiting pollinators can and do transfer pollen from one to the other as well. And wind/breeze can carry pollen from one nearby blossom to another.

These same bees, wasps, and flies also like smaller flowered melons, watermelons, and cucumbers, but the larger squash and gourd blossoms are overwhelmingly visited by the larger honeybees and bumble bees, carpenter bees and wasps, as well as the smaller hoverflies and other flies and maybe ants and some beetles as well. The honey bees and other bees look like they are taking pollen baths.

Generally speaking I think I would see similar insects visiting rhododendrons.

I have read that you are more likely to have better results planting many different kinds of flowers that bloom in succession throughout the season. The honeybees have been studied and tend to pick a specific kind of flower to visit in a given day, but wild native pollinators are more likely to visit different kinds of flowers as they forage.

Now, I also see butterflies, moths and hummingbirds visiting rhododendrons ... I’ve seen hummingbirds visit as well tomato and bean blossoms — they help to pollinate, too.

... And interestingly bumble bees and carpenter bees will also visit blossoms that they can’t fit inside of — when the bees can’t reach through the blossom, they will tear a hole in the base of those blossoms.

I tried counting the different kinds of bees and wasps that visit my garden and found mint blossoms almost universally attract them -- I counted 14 different species (+3 different butterflies) in approximately 10-15 minute period.

So I do see plenty of bee and other pollinator activity, but I hand pollinate squash when I’m in the garden IF I’m not overwhelmed by other tasks and IF The blossoms are not already full of bees and other insects. It’s just too much fun, and since I do notice some of the female blossoms end up not setting fruit sometimes. (Note that you can keep the petals of the male squash blossoms to add to salad, stir fry, soup garnish, omelette, etc.)

[applestar]

Maybe this is a good thread to reference? (click on the subject link or the up arrow link to jump to the thread)

Subject: Bee Garden

...are you growing squash? This morning, I had to wait for a honeybee that was having some kind of a pollen intoxication "wallow" in a squash flower inside my protective tunnel. I was all finished hand pollinating and cleaning up, and was ready to close up the tunnel, but the dumb bee took forever to come out.

[aaardvark]

Yes, there are more than a dozen rhododendrons on a few layers of terraces within two feet of the edible plants up to 25 feet up the hill from them to another 25 feet to one of them. There are also various other flowering plants and trees in the area. The bumble bees are very plentiful. There are occasional honey bees. There are also occasional low flying beelike insects that I do not know the names of off the top of my head.

[kayjay]

When I want to hand pollinate my squash and cucumbers, I grab a few blades of grass and make a little paintbrush. Some people use an actual paintbrush, but I couldn't be bothered making an extra trip back into the house.

For tomatoes and peppers, a lot of folks like me, who want to save the seeds without cross-pollination, actually take an effort to keep the pollinators OUT. You can put little drawstring muslin bags (usually for party favours, got them at the dollar store) over them, and for peppers, you can actually glue the flowers shut with children's school glue. I have yet to try gluing tomato flowers; maybe I'll try that this year as an experiment.

I just make sure I mark which flower it was by tying a piece of string or yarn around the stem to mark it. Then I know to save that fruit and mark the seeds as 'bagged'. It's not really necessary, and I don't really care if I end up with a cross for myself, but if I was sharing seed for someone else, I'd give them the bagged seed. I believe the natural cross rate is about 5%... I can't remember where I read that stat.

[TomatoNut95]

Yeah, I bought some of those little blossom baggy things off Seed Savers Exchange. I had hoped to attempt crossing a tomato someday like Applestar does but I haven't EVEN thought about it this year.

Bees don't normally visit my garden unless I grow cucumbers. So I don't worry myself one bit about my peppers or tomatoes crossing. The bumble bees tend to be be busy boring holes into my carport or porch wood, and the honey bees are just scarce, period. On rare occasion I'll see some honey bees, but they're more interested in the little weed flowers that bloom in my yard.

This morning I had a new female zucchini blossom open this morning and I pollinated her with two males, from whch I think one or both were scallops. I wonder what a Scallop/zucchini cross would look like....but I have yet to master the art of successfully saving squash seed, so I guess I'll never know.

[TomatoNut95]

I guess my hand pollinating worked, the Scallops and Zucchinis I first pollinated are growing!!

[TomatoNut95]

On the subject of hand-pollinating, do you have to do that to watermelon? I've got a pot of bush Sugar Baby Vines and I've seen blossoms but no growing fruit. Still no bees, so will I need to hand pollinate those the same way I'm having to do my squash?

[applestar]

watermelons, melons, and cucumbers as a group have differently structured flowers than squash and gourds. I usually do hand pollinate to improve chances and do face-to-face “kiss” of male blossoms to female blossoms (which do have embryonic fruit behind the blossom so easy to tell apart.

BE SURE to chase out and hopefully capture and crush any cucumber beetles in blossoms or nearby leaves before and after hand pollination — they are the WORST!

[TomatoNut95]

Oh yeah, I can tell which buds/blossoms are male and female. But how many males should I 'kiss' to the female to insure good pollination? Just one?

Cucumber beetles aren't usually a problem and maybe it's because I hardly ever grow curcubits, but I have seen them before, and I will certainly keep an eye out for them.