This is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
I have another exciting episode for you and I'm standing here in front of my super huge
monster trellis in front of my kakai pumpkin bed with a whole bunch of kakai and also some
other zucchini squashes planted in there.
What we're going to do today is we're going to have a fun episode on how to increase your
yields with the kakai pumpkins, other pumpkins, other squashes, whether they're zucchini squash
or winter squashes by doing some pollination.
We're literally going to learn about the birds and the bees for the squash plants here.
Now, remember back to junior high or high school, you may have had a sex ed class.
I know I did.
We learned about reproduction of people, but we didn't learn about botany or how plants
reproduce.
Well, most of use anyways, unless you're a plant geek.
Now, I never went to, you know, a botany class or never majored in biology, I don't have
any degree in horticulture, but, you know, today I'm going to show you how easy it is
to learn about the birds and the bees and about pumpkin reproduction, vey simply and
very easily.
So, first let's go ahead and show you some different flowers and explain to you what
they are, how they work, and how to pollinate and how to increase your yields.
First thing we need to do is figure out what a male and a female flower looks like.
So, the first thing I'm going to show you guys is a male flower.
I'm a male, and this is a male flower.
It's very easy to distinguish, you know.
Number 1, what you're going to notice is you're going to notice on the stem, the stem comes
straight up, as you can see right here, straight up, and there's no engorged parts, you know.
If there's an engorged part or and enlargement no the stem, then it's a female.
That's one easy way to determine.
The other way, which is actually even easier, is look into the middle of the flower, as
you can see.
We can see the middle of the flower, and what you're going to want to look for is the little
piece that comes up right in the center.
We're going to carefully tear this apart for you guys so you guys can see inside the middle,
and what we're wanting to look at is just that little thing sticking out right there.
Now, you know, if that thing right there looks like your thing, and what we're talking about
is this thing right here, if that thing looks like your thing.
So, you can check your thing, I'm checking my thing, and you can say, 'Okay, my thing
looks like that thing,' then it's a male.
Well, that's if you're a male.
If you're a female and it looks like your thing, then it's a female.
Well, this is a male flower, because it looks like my thing right here.
So, what we're going to do is we're going to, you know, as you can see, I cut off the
leaf here, and we have the little my thing, or the male flower right here, and, oh, and
many people just discard these.
What I want to recommend for you guys is actually as you pull them off, eat it.
The flower is really rich in antioxidants, really excellent flavor.
I love it.
Anyways, not we're going to take the plant thing and pollinate some other plant things
Now, I got a male by the stem, is that like a bull by the horns?
We could take our male, and now impregnate or pollinate some females.
Now, fortunately or the plant, there's actually a lot more males than females, so you might
have a hard time finding a female, and I have that problem in personal life, but nonetheless,
looks like we found a female right there.
So, let's go ahead and give you guys a close-up on the female and how it looks.
Now, we're going to show you guys a female flower, and let me go ahead and open her up
so you can see in the middle.
So, besides showing you guys the inside of the flower, what I want to show you guys is
actually the base of the female flower.
As you remember, this is our male here.
It has the flower and just the stem, but if look on the back of the female here, you can
see right in here it has the stem coming out but then there's an engorged area, or and
enlarged area, much like a pregnant lady, but actually this is actually the small fruits
forming.
Now, what we want to do is we want to impregnate or pollinate the female flower.
So, let's go ahead and go over and show you guys.
So, in the middle of the female flower, you know, it looks like a female people reproductive
parts.
I kind of just has like a whole bunch of different things and it doesn't look like a male by
any means or any long shot.
Many people may use a paintbrush and get some pollen off the male or, you know, a qtip or
a pencil eraser and get some pollen off the male.
I prefer to just use the real deal.
Why pleasure the plant with something fake when you could use the real thing?
So, what we're going to do is we're just going to take the female here, spread the female
petal open wide and we're just going to carefully take this guy and just brush around the edge
very carefully of the female.
Now, you don't want to necessarily jam it down the middle like we would.
Wait, relax, don't do it when you want to go to it.
What you want to do is generally take the make and jut, you know, brush it gently, caress
gently, the female around the edges to get some pollen in there, and, you know, let nature
do the rest.
Just like a praying mantis after you, you know, have pollinated a few females with one
male, eat it.
Wow, actually, that tasted quite good.
So, that's really how easy it to pollinate your flowers, your squash flowers, you know.
By pollinating you're basically going to ensure that you're going to have fruit created.
Now, do we need to pollinate?
Well, you know, if you have bees and other insects in your area, then you shouldn't even
have to worry about pollination.
If you are using something like row covers to exclude the bad bugs, then you will probably
actually want to pollinate to ensure you get good yield.
Doesn't take a lot to pollinate and actually it's a quite fun and rewarding experience,
plus also very tasty, too, 'cause after you're done pollinating, don't forget to eat them.
I love eating my squash flowers.
I think I mostly like the females when they turn into fruit and not the males, but males
are delicious nonetheless.
So, to sum it up, it's really easy to pollinate the squashes.
All you got to do is, you know, look t the plant parts, check your parts, if they're
the same, then it's the same.
Gender is yourself, and then pick the males and pollinate the females and call it a done
day.
Enjoy some flowers in the process.
In the end I want to remind you guys to ensure nice large fruit, and I like nice large fruit,
you want to ensure you pollinate your squash plants.
Now, the last thing I want to mention is that if you want to harvest your squash blossom,
cause it's this guy right here, you know, they make fabulous decorations for nice pretty
girls ear, or maybe even a pretty guys, then what you're going to want to do is you're
going to want to harvest the males.
There's far many and more males than females and harvest the extra males after you pollinated
all the females, and then actually you could use these and I actually like to use these
fresh on salads.
They make the salad look great.
You could also tear the petals up and, you know, put them on top of your salad.
You could use the petals like actually leafy greens.
They're actually very high in a beta-carotene and other phytonutrients that are quite essential
for us.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode about plant reproduction, you know.
I knew I went to high school for something, and I don't think this was it, but anyways,
it's really easy to pollinate your squashes.
Once again, remember the birds and the bees.
If you don't got the bees, you got to hand pollinate.
Once again, my name is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
We'll see you next time and keep on growin