Monday, August 8, 2011

Pollinating Squash


After I get home from work, I have gotten in the habit lately of checking on my Winter Squash. I am specifically looking to see if any of the female fruit's flowers have opened that day. If so, I look for some open Male flowers and do some hand pollinating. I am concerned because I am not seeing any bees in the squash patch and without a pollinator - bee or person - the squash won't set any fruit. First I pollinated the "Delicata" pictured above. It is only the second female bloom to open this year but it did have lots of male blooms open along with it. That bodes well for successful pollination having happened at some point today. Below is a picture of a "Marina di Chioggia" female fruit. I have had 4-5 bloom already but I am not feeling good about their pollination success rate.


So far this guy below, is the only squash I know for sure that set and is starting to grow. However, it is difficult, with the enormous size of the "Marina di Chioggia" leaves, to see all of the vines clearly. I am hoping that there are more set fruit under there that I just haven't discovered yet!



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