First of all, thank you Pam for hosting Garden Tuesdays. It is such fun to see what other people are doing and sometimes the information can save your garden!
Secondly, thank you Schneider Peeps for posting about the vine borer. Nasty things had gotten into half of my vine plants and I wouldn't have known what was happening if not for you.
Thirdly, pollination is interesting. I know bees are involved..... I know there are some plants that need both male and female for pollination to happen..... that's about it.
My zucchini flowers have not been producing any fruit.
Apparently they are all boys.
What?
How can you tell?
I don't know.
I need to re-sow some that I lost to the wicked vine borers. Maybe I'll get some girls this time.
I thought I was suffering the same fate with my pumpkins.
Then I saw this and it seemed so obvious.
This is a girl.
This is a boy.
Boy.
Girl.Any questions?
Have you tried pollinating by hand. It's easy. Take a cotton swab, swab the boy parts and then rub them on the girl parts. I have to do this every year, or else the squashes just shrivel up and die.
ReplyDeleteYou can also eat the blossoms. I mean to try it every year, but then don't get around to it. This year, I WILL!
LOL! So cute! Thanks for the laugh today, and your pics are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the x-rated zuchinni blossom lesson!
ReplyDeleteI guess it is obvious, now that you point it out!
ReplyDeleteHAHA I so wish I could come up with a question....just to make you have to answer...
ReplyDeleteI'm with Marji, of course now it is obvious! But until now, not to so obvious. thanks. And thanks Annie for the pollination tip, cause I don't seem to be able to grow zucchini.
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteMost squash plants will send out several male blooms first, just to be sure there is at least one when the female bloom opens.
Hand pollinating is great if you don't have many bees or when the plants first start to bloom. Sometimes a female bloom will be open on one plant, but no male on that plant. So I usually go ahead and help her out by picking a male bloom from another plant, pulling off the petals and brushing the pollen onto the female.
I'm so glad you were able to get rid of the vine borers. We found some in our yellow squash and my son did surgery on them instead of pulling the up. They seem to be doing okay.
Great pictures!
Hm. Who would have thought gardening was so complicated... I love the comment about the x-rated zucchini! Too funny!
ReplyDeleteNever in a million years would I have considered whether plants are male or female ... thanks for the lecture, and more important, thanks for the smile you put on my face !!!
ReplyDeleteLOL! I had no idea! Oh, Corinnea, that is too funny. Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteWait...Are all flowers like that??
I linked this post on my sister's FB wall, because she has a little garden of her own. This is what she said:
ReplyDelete"Thank you! Thank you! This must be the reason behind all of my blooms and lack of squash! Just needed some sex ed!"
Why do I have all boys?!
ReplyDelete