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Pumpkins, Squash & Gourds

Avoiding cross-pollination

15 years ago

It was suggested that my plants did not produce much last year because of cross-pollination. I wanted to find out how to avoid its happening again, not to mention that I want to save the seeds (argh--I guess the seeds I did save might not be any good!)

I had about 5 or 6 varieties each of gourds, squash, and melons, plus about 3 pumpkins, and a couple of cukes.

What would be the best way to plant them to avoid cross-pollination?

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Comments (4)

remy_gw
15 years ago
Hi Philo,
Someone gave you wrong info. They probably meant to say you didn't get many squash because of no pollination. Squash, and others in the squash family, blooms are either male or female and need an insect to carry pollen from bloom to bloom to ensure pollination. Sometimes not enough insects are around to pollinate. Also sometimes the plants seem to develop all or almost all the same sex flowers at certain times so even if insects are around chances of pollination are lowered.
You can replicate insect pollination by taking a male bloom in the morning and lightly rubbing the insides onto female blossoms. The male ones have nothing at the base the flower. Female ones have an undeveloped squash at the base.

Cross pollination happens when you grow two squash of the same species. An example is Acorn Squash, Zucchini and the little ornamental gourds(not real gourds like a birdhouse gourd) are all Cucurbita pepo. They will cross. They will not cross with other species. Like a Hubbard squash, Cucurbita maxima, will not cross with a Cucurbita pepo type squash. So when growing squash as long as the second name does not match, you can grow different types without worry of crossing if you wish to save seed.
And squash do not cross with melons or cukes. You only have to worry about cukes crossing with cukes and melons crossing with melons.
I hope I made sense,
Remy
Macmex
15 years ago
Here's a link to a thread on hand pollination of squash. If you wish to grow more than one squash of a given scientific family (closer than about 1/2 mile apart), then you should hand pollinate. It's not hard. Hand pollination can improve yields if you have a lack of pollinators. If pure seed in isn't important to you, then you can do the hand pollination and simply forget about covering the flower afterwards.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollination of Squash
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I am doing the exact same thing pnbrown. My sweet corn said 80 DTM (golden bantam), the dent 120 DTM, I planted the sweet one 3 weeks before the dent (also Hickory King) to give them even more of a spread in DTM. In theory this should work, however, I have noticed quite a range in germination times, so I have a mix of older and younger of both the sweet and the dent, even though all dent was sown together and all sweet was sown at the same time too. I guess there is a distribution (gaussian?) so on the tail ends I might have some problems with cross pollination. What I mean is that perhaps the latest sprouting sweet will still cross with the earliest sprouting dent. More genetic diversity in the heirloom corns maybe causes different sprouting times? If I had had this information (about the spread in germination) I would still be planting both, but probably would have separated them in time by 5 or 6 weeks rather than 3. We'll see, it might still work, but since you have not planted yet, I am alerting you to this, since all you have to do is spread them in time a bit more than two weeks. Worse comes to worse I'll have more flour/grits corn since the sweet will not affect the dent, just the other way around. I will report if I get crosses or not.
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Here's a response I gave to someone else on the Seed Saving Forum that might be helpful to some people: If you want to save seed from squash(without bagging,) you need to grow only types with a different second name. Squash's latin name is Cucurbita, but all squash have a second name of who they are compatable with. Like zucchini is most always Cucurbita pepo. Butternut is Cucurbita moschata. So zucchini and butternut will not cross because their second names are different. But Acorn squash is Cucurbita pepo, so it will cross with zucchini. There are other second names like maxima and mixta. Also, if you neighbors are growing squash close to you there could be cross pollination. The reason they is so much cross pollination between compatable varieties is squash need insect pollination to make fruit. Other veggies like tomatoes do not. So technically if you wanted to totally make sure your seed was pure, you would need like a mile or something between varieties. For home gardening that is impossible, and as long as your not really close to the neigbors you should be fine. I have seed saved from a local farmer and the squash grew true to type even though he grows different varieties. I think it is just cautionary that you may not get 100% if something is growing in the distance: ) Remy
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Don't worry about bloom times or the possibility of pollination. Polinated daylilies form a seed pod. After your daylilies bloom just snap off any pods that might have formed. If the entire scape is done with no more buds just cut the entire scape off. But they don't always form pods.
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Plants I grow for seed I keep in #5(3 1/2 gal. pots) because I know they will be moved inside for seed. Plants for eating get #15 pots(3X the size). I use recycled hops bags mostly. I like the drawstrings for closing the bag over a branch. Strip a few leaves from where the bag ties around a branch on outside plants. In #5 pots the 5 gal. sized paint strainer or grain bag fits over the whole plant and can be tied or duck taped onto the pot. Put a couple stakes around the edges of the pot tio hold the strainer open etc. A little plant trimming might be needed depending on variety. Get isolated pods in the spring and repot or put the plant in the ground for fall pods. I start my seeds at christmas time here in California and can overwinter stuff outside too.
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remy_gw
15 years ago
George,
I wish I had know you posted those great pics before! I'll definitely link to it next time I get a squash question. It is much easier to understand with pics.
Remy
Macmex
15 years ago
I just figure that the technique should be freely available and, pictures are essential for learning. I'd like to see MANY more gardeners using the technique.

George

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