In this article we will cover how to tell the difference between male and female squash flowers once they have bloomed; before they have bloomed; how to hand pollinate them; some things to note; and at the end is a video showing the difference prior to blooming.
Separate Squash Flowers
There are some plants such as squash and pumpkin that have SEPARATE male and female flowers but still bloom on the same plant. Most plants will have male and female parts on the SAME flower, but squash flowers were designed to do it differently.
The Male Squash Flower
Above you can see the male squash flower. The inside has one protruding male part called the anther. The purpose of male flowers is to produce the pollen. You can touch the anther, and you’ll get little yellow flecks of pollen dust on your hand. This pollen needs to get into contact on the female flowers in order to pollinate or fertilize the female flower so the squash fruit will grow.
The Female Squash Flower
Now let’s look at the female squash flower. If you look closely, you will see the inside almost looks like a different type of flower. Instead of one protruding part like the male, it has a stigma. The stigma is the female receptive part that needs to receive the pollen in order to grow a squash. This stigma, if touched, will not be soft and dusted with pollen like the male flower; instead at least in my experience, it will be more firm and can be a bit sticky, not much but you can feel a difference. This subtle stickiness is what helps to grab the pollen.
How to Pollinate Squash Flowers
Nature does the best job at pollinating all plants including the squash flowers. Insects such as bees are attracted to the large showy yellow/orange squash flowers. In their search for nectar and pollen, they land on the male flowers and gather what they can then fly off and land on female squash flowers. While on the female flowers, the stickiness of the female stigmas grab some of the pollen that’s on the insects and if all goes well, a squash will grow and develop.
If for some reason you are short on pollinators, you can hand pollinate in a couple different ways, but keep in mind, they are not as consistent as God’s design for insects to pollinate.
Method 1:
The most “natural” way to hand pollinate your squash flowers is to take the male flower, remove its petals, and rub the anther all over the stigma of the female squash flowers. Now the next logical question to ask would be how many female flowers can you pollinate in this manner with one male flower. The answer is it depends really. If insects do the pollinating then pollen from one male flower is usually enough to pollinate 2 maybe 3 female flowers, but by hand I would say 1-2 female flowers per male. Again it depends on how much pollen is actually on the male flower and environmental factors may play a role in pollen production. Another thing to note is that pollination will be more successful if multiple male flowers are used to pollinate the female flower.
Method 2:
You can also use a paintbrush to transfer the pollen from the male flower to the stigma onto the female squash flowers as well.
Squash Flower Stems
You now know how to tell male and female squash flowers apart once the blooms are opened, but now let’s talk about how to tell them apart before they actually bloom.
To put it simply, a male flower bud will have a long, thin, straight stem. The female flower buds will have shorter stems which are usually hidden below the leaves, but the main distinguishing feature is at the base of the flower bud where it meets the stem, there will be what looks like a baby squash on the female flower. The shape will be the same as what you harvest, but it’ll be much smaller than a harvestable size. This is the ovary of the female flower. Once the flower is pollinated, the ovary will begin to grow and develop into the edible squash we all know and love. I have attached two pictures showing the long thin male stems of the male flower and the immature fruit of the female flower.
Things to Note About Squash Flowers
Here are a few note worthy mentions on squash flowers:
- the plant will always produce a total of more male flowers than female flowers
- male flowers are most often the ones that bloom first, and it can take longer for female flowers to open than it does male flowers
- the weather can affect the number of female flowers produced. For example if it’s too cold or too hot or too wet or too dry or not enough nutrients in the soil, the plant will postpone its production of female flowers.
- if the plant has too many pollinated fruits during a hard growing season, the plant may abort some of its fruits to conserve resources for the plant
- other plants that have separate male and female flowers on the same plant are winter and summer squash such as zucchini, pumpkin, butternut, yellow, spaghetti, crookneck, acorn, even watermelons, cantaloupes, and cucumbers have separate male and female flowers.
- you can eat the male and female flower buds and their flowers and even the immature fruit from the female flower as well; however, if you choose to eat female flower buds then you will not get fruit from that flower.
- One last thing to note: If you are wishing to save seeds to plant for future use you need to make sure you are keeping the pollination pure. If you are new to this, be sure to read this article.
