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Pollinating squashes by hand is an easy-to-learn, simple yet effective technique to improve fruit set and yields. It can also be used to guarantee that seeds for saving breed true.
If insect pollinators are scarce or you just want to give them a helping hand, hand-pollinating is the way to go.
In this short video we’ll show you how to hand pollinate all kinds of squash, step by step.
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Do you force the female flower open to pollinate them? When to do the forced pollination is our issue. We've lost 4 zucchinis already.
Is it possible to not have any female flowers! I can’t find anything but makes.
Thank you!! It’s so hot here in Pennsylvania right now that the flowers that bloom in the morning are wilted by noon, not leaving much time for the bees. I have so many brown, rotting female flower bases that almost started growing into squash, but didn’t quite get enough pollination. Thank you for this solution!!
Another invaluable tip! Thank you so much!
So if there's no pollination (by insects or hand) there'll be no fruit produce, only flowers?? O_o
Brilliant! Now that's something that they don't teach you down at the allotment. Glad that I have found this video! Very happy!!!!
Hi.. my butternut only produces one male flower and then it dies off. How can I get the plant to give more flowers.
I'm growing mine indoors this winter because I don't know what I'm doing.
Thank you you helped me a lot you recude my butternut squash
Thanks, Ben, Great video, as always. Can I open an immature male blossom and use the pollen inside of it to pollinate an open female blossom? I have lots of females but none of the males have opened yet.
Brilliant video! Thank you so much
Can i pollinate the squash from a male wich is from the same plant or can i pollinate it with a male from a another squash plant?
Having lived in Wales for approximately 18 years with UNFORTUNATELY a North facing garden, I haven't raised any veg until this year. Also, I wanted American squash, something I haven't had in all these years. Thank you for the information and as soon as it stops raining I will take my paint brush out in the front garden (South) and pollinate the plants I have growing in buckets!
Thank you!!!
What an Insufferable chap
I’ve been hand pollinating my squash this spring. But recently I can’t manage to get very much pollen on my q-tip. The bees seem to be quite active. Is it possible that the bees are capable of removing almost all the pollen from an open flower?
Thank you so much, I'm growing 2 squash and 1 zuccine and there doing great thanks so much!!!!
Thank you
Hi…if you want to save seeds..is it better to use another plants male flower to pollinate or is it ok to use the male flower on the same plant I wish to save seeds from?thank you..another question plz..can I use the same male flower to pollinate several female flowers?thank you
Dumb question but can you get male and female flowers on the same plant or does the pollen have to be from a different plant? One blooming early and the other is quite a bit behind. Can the pollen be stored until one is ready?
On mine, the female flower is not forming. only the male. I see where the female should form, but that never happens.
Great video, thanks! I never thought about covering the females to ensure pollination by the right, er, partner. Had trouble with some kabocha coming out like pale pumkins last year, so I'm guessing that pollen from the wrong fella got in there. Those squash are promiscuous devils!
So will pollinating a female flower cause that specific fruit to grow better, or will it result in the whole plant growing more female flowers? Any help would be appreciated as I'm still relatively new at this stuff
Not one of our squash plants currently has a female flower. WAH!
How do I keep pests from ruining my butternuts?
PRO TIP for people who want to use this technique but save some time and money. Every video suggests using paint brushes or q-tips to get the job done and I'm here to tell you that's not needed. Go outside and find a piece of grass that's grown a bit, observe the stem and you should see lots of short hairs on the stem. The hair on grass stems works wonderfully for hand pollination and you'll notice the hairs perform very similar to the hairs on a honeybee. So you simply get to go out to your squash plant, pluck a piece of grass, pollinate, and then chuck the piece of grass right back on the ground and walah you've saved yourself time and money.