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Give squash flowers a hand

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 7, 2020

See the largest open squash flower on the right? That's a female flower. All the flowers on the long stems are male. Fully open male blossoms work best for hand-pollinating. Best time to do this is in the early morning. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Use a paintbrush to hand-pollinate

Tomato vines aren’t the only plants in the vegetable garden that could use a hand in pollination. Squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons are having problems, too.

Again, this is mostly weather-related. Bees and other pollinators don’t like to work in hot weather.

Or the bees may be having a hard time finding your squash and melon vines, especially if they’re surrounded by non-flowering plants.

Tomato vines may need only a gentle nudge to shake loose pollen and fertilize flowers. (See Monday's post on tomatoes .) Squash take a little more effort.

That’s because members of the cucurbit family (squash and all its cousins) have distinctly male and female flowers on the same plant. The pollen needs to get from the male blooms to the female flowers, usually with the help of bees.

When bees don’t do the job, pick up a paint brush and give pollination a hand.

A soft-bristled artist’s paintbrush, such as a watercolor brush, is perfect for this job.

Melon blossoms are smaller than squash ones but work

on the same principle.

First, determine which flowers are which. The female flowers have an obvious swelling at their base. That’s the baby fruit, waiting to be pollinated. In the center of that flower, the female stigma will be prominent and clearly visible.

The male flowers have no swelling at their base and they're filled with pollen-topped stamens.

Take the paintbrush and lightly swish it around those bright yellow stamens. The brush will quickly be covered with yellow dust; that’s the pollen.

Then, open up the female flower and gently stroke the stigma with the pollen-covered brush. That’s it; you’ve pollinated the flower.

Do this over and over until all the female flowers have been “dusted” with your pollen paintbrush.

If you don’t have a brush, try this alternative: Remove a male flower and pull back the petals to expose the stamens. Then, use the stamens to “paint” their pollen onto the female flower’s stigma.

Either way, baby squash (or melons or cucumbers or pumpkins) will soon be on the way.

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Keywords:

Sacramento pollination summer weather gardening summer garden bees heat summer vegetables summer squash cucurbits pollinators vegetable gardening summer

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Garden Checklist for week of May 19

Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

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