If your like me you get excited when you see big lush flowers on your vegetable plants in your garden, because then you know, that you are going to have a fruit growing really soon from that flower. Two years in a row I grew pumpkins, squash, and melons, and both years I had those lovely big flowers and not one single fruit. From comments on my other posts I know this happens to some of you too. So now I am going to explain why.
The Flowers on the Monoecious plants have both a female and a male flower, so what needs to happen is the bee or hand has to take the pollen from the male flower and place it in the female flower, then the fruit can produce. So if you are hand pollinating, you need to determine which flower is the male and which is the female. In the garden we need to know about these vegetable plants: (just a few but more common vegetables we grow)
Corn
Kiwi
Squash
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Pumpkins
Melons
If you notice the female has the cucumber growing below it.
How can you tell the difference between the 2 flowers. Examine the flower for a stamen, which is the male reproductive organ. A stamen consists of a pollen-producing anther, which is oval-shaped and often coated in yellow or white pollen. Tap the flower over white paper, and look for yellow or white pollen residue on the paper. Female flowers typically have only one pistil, which indicates a female flower.
SO there you have it folks. Hope you have learned how to tell the difference.
Happy Trails
Image Sources:
https://completegarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/cucumber-how-to-identifying-male-and-female-flower/
They totally have distinct sexual "organs". Squash are probably the easiest to tell since the flowers are so huge and the "organs" are so visible and pronounced. My summer squash females have golden crosses and the males have a long stamen. Really like looking at the visible difference between a jack and a jenny donkey or mule, one has a step ladder, the other doesn't.
Champion level giant pumpkin and squash growers, and a good number home gardeners, will take the male flowers, pluck them off and manually pollinate the female flowers. I throw male flowers in the fridge in a ziplock for a couple weeks to ensure I have pollen in early season, just in case. I don't always need it but am glad when I have it.
Really, this is great information. Champion Level Giant produce, lol I can't even get one fruit to produce. But I am dreaming big, setting goals.
Thank you! That was very helpful!
Good info and saves a lot of second-guessing yourself. My zukes have only thrown male flowers so far, but this is common from what I'm hearing, especially early on. Makes sense. Am still optimistic about a least a few goodies in the long run.
My pumpkins and acorn squash are doing the same, but alas I do remain positive, that this year I will finally have pumpkins