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Vegetable Gardening

The Differences Between Female & Male Blossoms

theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)

10 years ago

Since there have been so many questions involving the pollination of all the different cucurbits lately, I have decided to post a couple of pictures on how to tell the difference between male and female cucurbit blossoms.

Here is a photo of a female pumpkin blossom. All cucurbits whether they are squash, pumpkins, zucchini, watermelon, cucumbers, etc. will have a small fruit attached to the blossom.
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And here is a male blossom. Notice that it only has a stem attached to it.
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Usually (key word here), a plant will start putting out male blossoms about a week before it puts out female blossoms.

If you don't have both male and female blossoms you won't get a fruit. And if you have female blossoms but they don't get pollinated, the fruit will shrivel and fall off.

If you have bees they will pollinate for you. If you don't then try hand pollinating (directions in the link).

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ: How Do I Pollinate My Plants by Hand?

Comments (9)

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
10 years ago
Good pictures. On squash this year the female blossoms came first and it was frustrating.. I do believe that ants pollinate too.
nugrdnnut
10 years ago
Like wayne, my zucchini had all female blossom and male blossoms followed about a week later. I help with the pollination as we don't seem to get good natural pollination. It may be due to living in orchard country and the orchardsists are regularly spraying their fruit.

To the OP... nice pictures of the male and female blossom.
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theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the compliments about the pictures. I'm thinking I should change the subject of this post to Squash Discussion.

Rodney
seysonn
10 years ago
Well, you can but all members cucurbits share the same characteristics i.e. separate male and female flowers, ( as you mentioned in your opening post). So I think the topic is valid.
nugrdnnut
10 years ago
The other thing I have noticed is that Zucchini flowers open up in the morning and cantaloup flowers open in the heat of the day.
mommomsgarden
10 years ago
Do tomatoes work that way as well?
mommomsgarden
10 years ago
Do tomatoes work that way as well?
theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
Original Author
10 years ago
I'm not too sure about tomatoes as I only occasionally grow them but I believe that most tomato varieties have flowers that are self pollinating. I could be wrong though. When I do grow tomatoes, I've never had a problem with pollination. If you're wondering if tomato blossoms have fruit attached to them, then no, they don't.

Rodney
seysonn
10 years ago
Do tomatoes work that way as well?
-----------------------------------------------

The answer is : NO
Tomato belongs to nightshade family(peppere, potato, ..) and the have the so-called perfect flowers; meaning each flower has both male and female parts an so they are sef-pollinating.

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