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The Cucurbit cousins – squash, cucumbers, melons, gourds, and pumpkins – have a reputation for poor pollination. You may find that your plants are covered with flowers, yet you get few fruits. Why? There are a number of factors that can contribute to pollination problems, but first, it helps to understand a little bit more about the Curcubit’s.
Members of this family have separate male and female flowers and in order to yield fruits, cross pollination needs to take place. This is when the pollen from a male flower is transferred to a female flower. It’s easy to tell the two types of flowers apart; male flowers have a straight stem beneath the bloom, while the female flowers have an immature fruit under the bloom. Only the female flowers will develop into a fruit. If no pollination takes place, that immature fruit will rot and fall off.
Savvy gardeners may also notice that when Curcubit’s initially begin to bloom, the plants produce only male flowers. Don’t worry! This only lasts for a week or two, with plenty of female flowers soon following.
What causes poor squash pollination?
- Too few bees and pollinators to move the pollen from the male to the female flowers.
- A stretch of very cool or very hot weather when the flowers are in bloom.
- Wet weather, or badly timed watering will affect pollen quantity and quality. If you must water, avoid early morning when the blooms first open. As well, irrigate only the soil, not the plant.
What’s a gardener to do?
As your Curcubit crops come into bloom, there’s no need to cross your fingers and hope for the best! Instead, give Mother Nature a helping hand by hand pollinating. Hand pollinating is quick and easy, and can seriously increase your yield.
Before you begin, grab a q-tip or a small bristle paintbrush, or pluck a just-opened male flower from the plant. If using a q-tip or paintbrush, press it gently to the anther of a fresh male flower and transfer the pollen to the stigma of a female flower. If you want to pollinate using a male flower, pick a good looking specimen from the plant and remove the petals to expose the anther. Then, simply press it against the stigma of the female flowers.
In my garden, hand pollinating cucumbers, zucchini, and squash results in more fruits per plant and an earlier harvest. Yet, for certain crops, like edible snake, bottle, and luffa gourds, it’s essential to hand pollinate. Many gourd flowers open at night, a time when there are fewer pollinators. Hand pollinating newly opened female flowers results in an excellent harvest.
For more on growing cucumbers, check out the following articles:
Do you hand pollinate your crops?
Hello! I planted some zucchini seeds about a month ago and they are growing so well that they look like they are threatening to bloom already. So I might end up trying some hand pollination if they bloom before it is safe to harden them off and put them outdoors. I was wondering if there is any advantage to pollinating between plants where possible, or is it perfectly fine to use the male flowers to pollinate the female flowers on the same plant? Thanks!
Hi Beth, been there! ha ha. Honestly, you’ll likely want to replant. Overmature plants don’t transplant well and don’t reach their harvest potential. I’m just sowing seeds for squash, cucumbers, and melons indoors this coming weekend – about a month before the last frost date. But if you want to hand pollinate, it’s fine to use the pollen from the male flowers on the same plant. Good luck! Niki
Can I pollinate a female squash flower with a male flower from a zucchini plant? My squash has open female flowers with no male flowers and my zucchini has male flowers with no female ones. Thank you
Hi there 🙂 I have both female and male blossoms on my Armenian cucumber. But the male do not seem to be opening at the same time as the female. Can I use the male buds to hand pollinate the female? Cut them off into a container and squish them up and then apply to female? I just now tried it and didn’t see a lot of pollen. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Good morning. My cucumber plants do not have male flowers. What do I do pls?
My squash plant is producing only male only blossoms what should I do?
Great question!! But unfortunately they are a different species and the pollen isn’t compatible. – Niki
Wow, what a Great Answer. I mean Great to know can use various pollen, but really cool to learn that if one were to try and save seeds, they would be a hybrid basically. Thanks! REALLY good to know, cause we have many more male yellow blossoms. I think with early rain on the 4th, the few male zukes got kind of solidified. Love your website.
Hi Niki, one more question……..How about using Cucumber Pollen for Squash? Compatible? We have a zillion Cukes, so a zillion flowers. Curious. Thanks.
This may not be a great question, but can we use pollen from a yellow crook neck squash to pollinate a Black Zucchini? Or are they not compatible? Short on the Male flowers, planted these two varieties too close together in a raised bed, and the Yellows are taking over. Thanks.
That is a great question Peter.. and yes you can. You don’t need to use the same variety – you can even pollinate summer squash with pumpkins and winter squash, and vise versa. Just don’t save the seeds as they won’t come true to type. – Niki
Thank you for your information. I was happy to see both male and female zucchini flowers open today when I was weeding the garden. After weeding, I went to pollinate and I was too late. Both the flowers closed. I am optimistic that a male flower will be open tomorrow, but I don’t think that the female flower will open again. Can I open it to pollinate if it doesn’t want to open up again or am I too late?
Excellent question! I’m afraid once the flowers close it’s game over for pollinating. I often look at my other zucchini plants and ‘steal’ a male flower to pollinate a female flower on a different plant. Especially early in the season when there isn’t an abundance of male and female flowers always open. It’s only early summer so you’ll likely have plenty of both types of flowers very soon. – Niki
Great Info, have been hand pollinating for the past 7-10 days based on your info, and have had a little success. But have 2 yellow crook neck squash and two black zucchini too close together in raised bed. Yellow squash is taking over, the zucchini has far less male (and female) blossoms. I am sure it will not work to use the Yellow squash pollin on the zucchini, correct? Probably a Really dumb question, but had to ask. I planted two more zucchini in separate bed, but not until July 3rd, so late on those 2.
Yes; you can swap pollen between the yellow and green zucchini plants. However, don’t save the seeds to plant next year as they will not come true to type and will result in a possibly funky natural hybrid.