Do you know how frustrating it is to have a garden with many healthy squash plants growing there that are hell bent on putting out only MALE blossoms? I do. Well I did a little studying up on squash. Seems that each plant is supposed to produce male and female blossoms. These blossoms are cross pollinated by bees; flies; butterflies...any variety of flying bugs. Okay, so far so good. I get it. Basically everything takes care of itself. Only I've had problems growing squash for the past two seasons in my little garden. And I know that squash is one of the easiest veggies to grow. So what's the problem? Seems my squash are gay! I had nothing but male blossoms out there for weeks now. And I swear I can hear the faint sounds of show tunes coming from my garden at night! Yup, just a happy little blossom fest going on out there...until...a few days ago. A dramatic turn of events occurred. Three little girls suddenly appeared in the garden and the singing at night stopped. And with the girls arrival, in the form of female blossoms of course, came hope that finally I would get some squash growing out there. But I wasn't easy with the idea of just letting nature takes it course. That's what I've done in the past and no squash was forthcoming. Perhaps the "boys club" out there was intimidating the girls party and I can't have that now can I? So I took matters into my own hands and I went out to that garden armed with a Q-tip and the determination to make sure the girls didn't end up as wall flowers at the dance.
Yes, I hand pollinated those female blossoms, using the biggest, strongest and freshest male blossoms that were there. In other words I "dittled" the boys with the Q-tip and then "dittled" the girls in turn. And just to be on the safe side, I used more than one male for each female. That means we'll never know who the "fathers" are and there won't be any finger pointing going on or any paternity suits in the future.
And now I wait and I watch...and I listen. I'm going to be very vigilant in keeping an eye on those squash plants. And I better not hear any more show tunes!
