Squash Pollination Questions

[Pronghorn]

I have four squash plants planted in containers; Golden Crookneck, Zuchini, White Bush Scallop Squash, and a Pumpkin. They are all starting to flower but I'm only getting one flower at a time on each one, and I'm concerned about pollination. I have female flowers on the Zuchinni, and Males on two others, one of the flowers on the Crookneck closed up and hasn't opened back up again, and one of my Zuchinni flowers came on yesterday and has closed already. Does this mean they are pollinated when they close? Also, can they be pollinated from anothers pollen-can a bee pollinate a Zuchnni for example with the pollen from a Pumpkin? I'm confused and wondering if I need to do hand pollination. Never grown squashes before so comments would be appreciated.

oh yeah, they should been separated. Ooopsie-
the pumpkin won't cross with the other 3, but the other 3 will cross each other.

separate and hand pollinate any future flowers.

Being all four are c.pepo they will cross. This of coarse is provided your pumpkin is not c.maxima or other types.maxima and the others should not cross with pepo. while a jack o lantern pumpkin ie Howden or pie pumpkin ie New England Pie will cross with any member of the c.pepo family. This will not affect this years crop but will be noticed if you save seeds and plant them in 2011.


Kevin

[Pronghorn]

thanks. so essentially it won't matter if they cross pollinate so long as i'm not going to be saving seeds?

still curious about the squash flowers closing at a certain time of day. is this normal? i'm not seeing any honey bee's around so i don't think they are getting pollinated but maybe native bee's are doing it.

i'm getting plenty of peas and tomatoes coming on so maybe i shouldn't worry about pollination, but i'm still tempted to drive them to bee hives (migratory gardening instead of migratory beekeeping, a bit of a switch up).

Thanks for that Kevin... I better get it straight.

Originally Posted by Pronghorn

thanks. so essentially it won't matter if they cross pollinate so long as i'm not going to be saving seeds?

still curious about the squash flowers closing at a certain time of day. is this normal? i'm not seeing any honey bee's around so i don't think they are getting pollinated but maybe native bee's are doing it.

i'm getting plenty of peas and tomatoes coming on so maybe i shouldn't worry about pollination, but i'm still tempted to drive them to bee hives (migratory gardening instead of migratory beekeeping, a bit of a switch up).

Flowers from the squash family do not last long once they open.A few days and that's it. Keep in mind that if you just started getting flowers it is most likely male flowers.These are the long slender stems.The females will have small squash at the bottom of the flower.The reason the male flowers come first is to get bees in the habit of making a visit to pollinate.


Kevin

Originally Posted by tughillcam

Thanks for that Kevin... I better get it straight.

No prob Tug.


Kevin

[Izzy]

A few observations from a southern gardener - the flowers on my squash & pumpkins last only a few hours, as opposed to a few days, in Kevin's case. It may be due to our heat/humidity/salt enviroment. I let my pumpkins do their thing, and did not get pollination of female flowers for over a month. Ditto w/yellow squash & zucchini. The ratio of female to male was very low, and I was worried I would have no fruits. Then I decided to get out there with a flashlight early in the morning before work. As soon as I had a few females pollinated, I noticed in the next few weeks, I had a large increase of female flowers. Now, with additional hand pollinating, I'm getting spectacular results. Co-incidence?? Could be ... Could be not. Who knows?


edit: just saw the part where you have them in containers, Pronghorn. If it's possible to move them to a location where the vines can "dig in" into the garden soil, you might see more production in the long run. The vines will root, providing additional uptake of nutrients & water than they can from a container, and branch out to give you more production potential.

[bugpicker]

I have hand pollinated, it works well but I find you must do it early in the day as the flowers close. Since I am not an early riser except as necessary, this year I have just exercised my patience and waited for the pollinators to come and do their job. I have harvested yellow squash and 1 white scallop and I finally see one lemon squash starting to grow.

[TooManyTomatoes]

At my house, it seems the same flower will open up more than one day, but in the morning, and close after a few hours.

My own plants have not flowered yet, but the neighbors who share my garden have a proliferation of female flowers on both the crook necks and the zukes. It's very sad to see all those wasted babies! I told them they should pick them and stuff them instead of letting them go to waste. The male flowers are just now coming on. In their cukes, they have mostly male flowers and few females which is pretty typical.

I've never had much luck with hand pollination, but usually it is a last ditch effort, and probably too late anyway.