eHow launches Android app: Get the best of eHow on the go.

How To

How to Hand Pollinate Zucchini, Winter Squash, or Pumpkins

Member
By pioneer70
User-Submitted Article
(0 Ratings)
Hand pollination helps the home gardener bring in a good harvest.
Hand pollination helps the home gardener bring in a good harvest.
Deborah Waller

Vegetables such as zucchini, winter squash and pumpkins depend on pollination for a good crop. Sometimes this is a problem for home gardeners. If there is a shortage of beneficial insects or the plants are grown under cover there may be a sparse harvest. Hand pollinating flowers is as easy as figuring out which are male or female and bringing them both together.

Difficulty: Easy
Instructions
  1. Step 1

    Look at the flowers on the plant that is going to be pollinated. Female flowers have swelling at the base of the flower, males don’t. The flowers themselves are large and yellow.

  2. Step 2

    Gently pull away the petals of a male flower to the expose stamens.

  3. Step 3

    Insert the male flower in to the female flower to add pollen. Be very gentle!

  4. Step 4

    Some recommend gently tying the petals of the pollinated flower closed with twine to protect it. This will prevent cross-pollination if several different types of squash are grown close together. Do this gently and the whole thing will fall off when the vegetable begins to grow.

  5. Step 5

    Pollination is successful when the flower dries up and falls off as the new vegetable begins to grow.

Tips & Warnings
  • This is best done early in the morning when the female flowers first open.
Subscribe

Post a Comment

Post a Comment

Related Ads

  • Have you done this? Click here to let us know.
I Did This
Get Free Home & Garden Newsletters

Copyright © 1999-2009 eHow, Inc. Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the eHow Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.   en-US Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

eHow Home and Garden
eHow_eHow Home and Garden