I personally don’t give this the time. BUT for the GIC Crew that has do you find the difference is pretty big? ALSO! If you want more day to day updates visit me over on the gram - instagram.com/gardeningincanada
You absolutely cracked me up with all the careful explanation and at the end, “I don’t do it. Ever. I don’t have time for it and I don’t really care about it that much.”😂
Science never lost credibility with those equipped to interpret it properly. Keep up the good work! This year I actually hand pollinated the butternut squashes. I know from last years, if by mid July I am not seeing a fair amount of fruit or female flowers, the weather or soil quality have done damage. This year was the cold nights deep into June. Unusual for these parts of Ontario. So now I have a good yield due to my...hand job :) Last year I did nothing and had the same yields, because the weather was better . Cheers.
I hand pollinated my corn this year. I didn't have enough space so i grew only 5 stalks of corn in my cucumber patch. I decided to rub the tassels together to ensure pollination and not rely on the wind. It worked, corn is growing. And good to know why my cucumbers are looking funny , improper pollination. Thanks! Good video!
I find for my cucumbers and zucchini, hand pollination is a must. I get almost zero zucchini if I do not hand pollinate. When I hand pollinate, I have an almost 100% success with getting a mature fruit . I also hand pollinate my Sunflowers that we want to collect seeds from. … The rest of our garden is pollinated by pollinators. … PS - I do shake our tomato stems that have flowers on them.
Have applied somewhat halfhazard hand pollination techniques but repeated. Had great results with 3 butternut squash that had 3 male flowers and 19! Female flowers. Result: 19 squash even though late in the season. Lucked out as we had a long, warm and sunny fall that year and the squash were growing down a sharply inclined south facing slope. Random results since but always get some. Would love a video on cross-pollinating tomatoes! Have 3 varieties of tomatoes that do well enough in my garden ( which I just flick and tap...early pollination is great. Later on is hit or miss on 2 of them)
I tried hand-pollinating two of my cantaloupe that had no fruit for me yet. One single of my pollination attempts was successful. So now after watching all this I'm definitely going to go try again
I'm a market gardener, so increasing yields is everything to me! I already tickle my tomatoes, but had no idea I could do the same with peppers, vs using artist paintbrushes. This would be a huge time saver, thank you!
I never knew that if you want to hand pollinate, you should make multiple passes at it! I'm doing it with my winter squash this year because they're so late to make fruit that I want to be assured that I at least get a couple to set.
Every once in a while I do hand pollination. I planted some apples before I understood that some were triploids and couldn’t pollinate the others. So I would go to the park and clip crabapple blooms and hand pollinate my apples several times in the spring. It worked ok, but I lost all my apples anyway due to animals and an unexplained fruit drop in June. I’ve also been tossing corn pollen on the silks in my garden because I lost so many corn plants to animals this year.
Hand pollinated last year with toothbrush and got insane amounts of yeild. This year didn't bother and got half of what I did last year. Other factors could contribute but that has been my experience. Might try hand pollenation again next year
Laymen is nice... KISS keep it simple sista! Thank you, Ashley. Enjoying the knowledge. Peace Berkshires, MA 5b I do fidget with tomatoes during the walk arounds, but rarely any others. I did pollenate one pumpkin this season. Was too tempting to pass by.. I do leave it up to the amazing bees in the area. Peace
Ashley, you may feel bad but you look great. Have you lost weight? I'd love a video on crosses! I'm pretty reckless when it comes to squash, in that I plant different varieties close together and save the seed. Nothing scientific about it; keeping my fingers crossed toxic squash syndrome doesn't develop. But, crossing tomatoes sounds interesting. I grow for flavor, so now you've got my wheels turning. Please show us how to do it! Hope you feel better. ~ Lisa
The only things I regularly hand pollinate are squash and pumpkins. Mostly it's because the male and female flowers never seem to be in sync, so I'll end up breaking open a male flower that bloomed the day before to pollinate the female flower that's open. I've hand pollinated corn by rubbing the tassels on the silks before, in a year where I was trying a unique variety and didn't have a lot of seeds. This year, I've got a short season variety, densely planted, and my assistance in pollination consisted of shaking the stems and sending clouds of pollen into the air. Anything else, I just don't bother.
I swear you release videos the day I do (or incorrectly do) whatever the topic is. I just hand pollinated my luffa today. I have had only female flowers oddly, and a male popped up today (although the females there are looking at the end of their life, so it may not have worked). Fingers crossed and thanks for the video!
I have definitely had to resort to hand pollination when I see that no fruits are forming. But I'm working on increasing my pollinators by having lots of flowers all over the yard. Right now my "problem" is that my cukes have not yet produced a female flower. Weird.
I hand pollinate in a greenhouse, when I’m not seeing fruit set, and whenever I grow tomatillos or watermelons cause I don’t have time to wait for the bugs to figure out what to do.
I plant my corn about 10 inches away from each other, and if I'm out watering and it's a calm day, I'll give every stalk a quick shake. They drop a ton of pollen that just slowly floats down and I don't know if it's helping a lot, but since I've started doing that I've had good production every year, and before that I'd have half-formed cobs. Now, I also, the same year I started doing that, I started planting it earlier and under cover, so maybe it's that, but I don't mind giving them a little shake, I only grow about 12 to 15 plants, so it only takes a few seconds to shake each one... and it's kind of fun
By casual observation, it can help if the pollen lands on the corn silks that grow from the top of the corn husk which grow around the corn of the cob.
I normally don't hand pollinate and just let nature do its' thing. My melons are off to a slow start this year so I think I'm going to hand pollinate them.
I'm lazy. Diluted milk, watered down yogurt (both belonged to the kids they forgot at the back of the fridge) poured around the base of the plants and the flies will pollinate for you.😅 Just don't grow too close to the house! 😜
For parthenocarpic cucurbit varieties, it doesn't matter. The female flowers set fruits even if they are not pollinated, though they won't have seeds in them (it's even desired in some cases as it makes "better" cucumbers for example). As for gynoecious, the plant set only female flowers, so if the variety is non-parthenocarpic, it will need an other variety with male flowers nearby for pollination. If the variety is gynoecious and parthenocarpic, all the flowers will be female and will develop a fruit either it is pollinated or not (the only way for that type of cucurbit to be pollinated is to grow an other variety nearby that is monoecious, so if you want to be sure that the cucumber are seedless, grow only gynoecious and parthenocarpic varieties 😉)
@@jean-philippenantel6345thank you so much for this. I currently am only growing parthenocarpic. My greenhouse cucumbers are producing at different rates depending on what side of the greenhouse they are on. Same varieties planted, same number. I’m trying to figure out why.
Do you have any suggestions on managing ants? They cover my entire property not just the gardens. My gardens are just full of them and they bite hard. Only a handful of my chickens will actually eat them because they bite their faces/mouths
I got absolutely zero squash this year. I only had 2 of each plant but each one only put on male flowers. Strange I know. I was going to hand pollinate this year but with zero female a four plants was a wash out! Your thoughts?
@@annhendrick8681 I feel your pain. I had 4 acorn squash growing then the plants got attacked by something, ate the inside of the stem / base of the plant. I managed to get 4 tiny acorn squash from those.
My delicata squash has been making plenty of male flowers, but has had only a few tiny female organs that yellow and fall off before they actually blossom. Very disappointing! (My summer squash have also been very male-dominant this year, but at least I’ve gotten a few normal-looking squash.) It might just not be their year.
The only time I will hand pollinate is when the 1st female luffa flowers show up, it's been 100%. When the male flowers are more abundant, I leave it to the pollinators. Stay Well!!!
No, it expires too quickly. Plus, you would have to hope they had tomato pollen, corn pollen, Cucurbit pollen, etc on hand to purchase. You might need to pollinate your squash and all they had was tomato, for instance.
So you can cross one tomato plant's pollen with another to create a hybrid... but how specific are plant pollens? Can you use pollen from different plant types. I imagine you could but success would be a lot less likely... but not impossible. Doesn't Mother Nature do it that way from time to time. Heck even in the animal world we have a platypus, duck and beaver parents that didn't diversity get in the way of their love.
I personally don’t give this the time. BUT for the GIC Crew that has do you find the difference is pretty big? ALSO! If you want more day to day updates visit me over on the gram - instagram.com/gardeningincanada
You absolutely cracked me up with all the careful explanation and at the end, “I don’t do it. Ever. I don’t have time for it and I don’t really care about it that much.”😂
😅 my answer to 99.9% of my videos
Science never lost credibility with those equipped to interpret it properly. Keep up the good work! This year I actually hand pollinated the butternut squashes. I know from last years, if by mid July I am not seeing a fair amount of fruit or female flowers, the weather or soil quality have done damage. This year was the cold nights deep into June. Unusual for these parts of Ontario. So now I have a good yield due to my...hand job :) Last year I did nothing and had the same yields, because the weather was better . Cheers.
I hand pollinated my corn this year. I didn't have enough space so i grew only 5 stalks of corn in my cucumber patch. I decided to rub the tassels together to ensure pollination and not rely on the wind. It worked, corn is growing. And good to know why my cucumbers are looking funny , improper pollination. Thanks! Good video!
That is genius! Doing the work for the corn.
I've done the same, it definitely works!
I find for my cucumbers and zucchini, hand pollination is a must. I get almost zero zucchini if I do not hand pollinate. When I hand pollinate, I have an almost 100% success with getting a mature fruit . I also hand pollinate my Sunflowers that we want to collect seeds from. … The rest of our garden is pollinated by pollinators. … PS - I do shake our tomato stems that have flowers on them.
Yes, please make that video!!! I want to learn how to cross my tomatoes! It sounds fun! Lets do it! 😁💚
Have applied somewhat halfhazard hand pollination techniques but repeated. Had great results with 3 butternut squash that had 3 male flowers and 19! Female flowers. Result: 19 squash even though late in the season. Lucked out as we had a long, warm and sunny fall that year and the squash were growing down a sharply inclined south facing slope.
Random results since but always get some.
Would love a video on cross-pollinating tomatoes! Have 3 varieties of tomatoes that do well enough in my garden ( which I just flick and tap...early pollination is great. Later on is hit or miss on 2 of them)
I tried hand-pollinating two of my cantaloupe that had no fruit for me yet. One single of my pollination attempts was successful. So now after watching all this I'm definitely going to go try again
I'm a market gardener, so increasing yields is everything to me! I already tickle my tomatoes, but had no idea I could do the same with peppers, vs using artist paintbrushes. This would be a huge time saver, thank you!
Thanks as always for such useful & free info Ashley!
I never knew that if you want to hand pollinate, you should make multiple passes at it! I'm doing it with my winter squash this year because they're so late to make fruit that I want to be assured that I at least get a couple to set.
Great information; thanks for sharing! My squash are just starting to bloom so I may intercede, just to see if I can help! 🤗
Good luck!
Every once in a while I do hand pollination. I planted some apples before I understood that some were triploids and couldn’t pollinate the others. So I would go to the park and clip crabapple blooms and hand pollinate my apples several times in the spring. It worked ok, but I lost all my apples anyway due to animals and an unexplained fruit drop in June. I’ve also been tossing corn pollen on the silks in my garden because I lost so many corn plants to animals this year.
Hand pollinated last year with toothbrush and got insane amounts of yeild. This year didn't bother and got half of what I did last year. Other factors could contribute but that has been my experience. Might try hand pollenation again next year
Laymen is nice... KISS keep it simple sista! Thank you, Ashley. Enjoying the knowledge. Peace Berkshires, MA 5b I do fidget with tomatoes during the walk arounds, but rarely any others. I did pollenate one pumpkin this season. Was too tempting to pass by.. I do leave it up to the amazing bees in the area. Peace
Ashley, you may feel bad but you look great. Have you lost weight?
I'd love a video on crosses! I'm pretty reckless when it comes to squash, in that I plant different varieties close together and save the seed. Nothing scientific about it; keeping my fingers crossed toxic squash syndrome doesn't develop. But, crossing tomatoes sounds interesting. I grow for flavor, so now you've got my wheels turning. Please show us how to do it! Hope you feel better. ~ Lisa
I have! And I’ll pop that into the list
I would LOVE to see a video on making tomato crosses. I see a new obsession coming on lol
I would love to see a video on making your own varieties of fruit and vegetables.
Check out david the good.
He has many videos on making local landraces.
I appreciate this calm and clear video.
The only things I regularly hand pollinate are squash and pumpkins. Mostly it's because the male and female flowers never seem to be in sync, so I'll end up breaking open a male flower that bloomed the day before to pollinate the female flower that's open.
I've hand pollinated corn by rubbing the tassels on the silks before, in a year where I was trying a unique variety and didn't have a lot of seeds. This year, I've got a short season variety, densely planted, and my assistance in pollination consisted of shaking the stems and sending clouds of pollen into the air.
Anything else, I just don't bother.
That makes sense!
Use a leaf blower to pollinate corn.
I swear you release videos the day I do (or incorrectly do) whatever the topic is. I just hand pollinated my luffa today. I have had only female flowers oddly, and a male popped up today (although the females there are looking at the end of their life, so it may not have worked). Fingers crossed and thanks for the video!
Oh wow that was not good timing in the luffas part!
I have definitely had to resort to hand pollination when I see that no fruits are forming. But I'm working on increasing my pollinators by having lots of flowers all over the yard. Right now my "problem" is that my cukes have not yet produced a female flower. Weird.
I hand pollinate in a greenhouse, when I’m not seeing fruit set, and whenever I grow tomatillos or watermelons cause I don’t have time to wait for the bugs to figure out what to do.
I plant my corn about 10 inches away from each other, and if I'm out watering and it's a calm day, I'll give every stalk a quick shake. They drop a ton of pollen that just slowly floats down and I don't know if it's helping a lot, but since I've started doing that I've had good production every year, and before that I'd have half-formed cobs. Now, I also, the same year I started doing that, I started planting it earlier and under cover, so maybe it's that, but I don't mind giving them a little shake, I only grow about 12 to 15 plants, so it only takes a few seconds to shake each one... and it's kind of fun
By casual observation, it can help if the pollen lands on the corn silks that grow from the top of the corn husk which grow around the corn of the cob.
Garden geeks be buzzen like bees after that. Great job on the botanical. Cuc's and Zuc''s are happening now, B.C. zone 3
I normally don't hand pollinate and just let nature do its' thing. My melons are off to a slow start this year so I think I'm going to hand pollinate them.
That’s fair. Sometimes giving them that extra bump is needed
Large growers with greenhouse production buy commercial boxes with bumble bees from special companies here in Germany.
Yes! I have totally heard of this before
Thank you
No problemo
I'm lazy. Diluted milk, watered down yogurt (both belonged to the kids they forgot at the back of the fridge) poured around the base of the plants and the flies will pollinate for you.😅 Just don't grow too close to the house! 😜
omg ya do a garden tomato cross tutorial ! pls
Does self pollinating make any difference with gynoecious or parthenocarpic varieties?
Videos on making tomato hybrids would be cool.
I honestly didn’t stumble across any studies looking at those two in regards to hand pollination
For parthenocarpic cucurbit varieties, it doesn't matter. The female flowers set fruits even if they are not pollinated, though they won't have seeds in them (it's even desired in some cases as it makes "better" cucumbers for example). As for gynoecious, the plant set only female flowers, so if the variety is non-parthenocarpic, it will need an other variety with male flowers nearby for pollination. If the variety is gynoecious and parthenocarpic, all the flowers will be female and will develop a fruit either it is pollinated or not (the only way for that type of cucurbit to be pollinated is to grow an other variety nearby that is monoecious, so if you want to be sure that the cucumber are seedless, grow only gynoecious and parthenocarpic varieties 😉)
@@jean-philippenantel6345thank you so much for this. I currently am only growing parthenocarpic. My greenhouse cucumbers are producing at different rates depending on what side of the greenhouse they are on. Same varieties planted, same number. I’m trying to figure out why.
Do you have any suggestions on managing ants? They cover my entire property not just the gardens. My gardens are just full of them and they bite hard. Only a handful of my chickens will actually eat them because they bite their faces/mouths
I’ll do a video on ants!
@@GardeningInCanada that would be incredibly helpful! Really appreciate it! I am in Cape Breton, NS if that's relevant at all
I got absolutely zero squash this year. I only had 2 of each plant but each one only put on male flowers. Strange I know. I was going to hand pollinate this year but with zero female a four plants was a wash out! Your thoughts?
@@annhendrick8681 I feel your pain. I had 4 acorn squash growing then the plants got attacked by something, ate the inside of the stem / base of the plant. I managed to get 4 tiny acorn squash from those.
My delicata squash has been making plenty of male flowers, but has had only a few tiny female organs that yellow and fall off before they actually blossom. Very disappointing! (My summer squash have also been very male-dominant this year, but at least I’ve gotten a few normal-looking squash.) It might just not be their year.
I think it might have to do with the weather?
@@CWorgen5732 I’m sure that’s a factor!
Now I know why I have weird-looking zucchini, thanks.
Haha yay! 😁 love when that happens
The only time I will hand pollinate is when the 1st female luffa flowers show up, it's been 100%. When the male flowers are more abundant, I leave it to the pollinators.
Stay Well!!!
Mom told me I would go blind if I kept hand pollinating
😂😂😂😂😂
Just close one eye
Can You Buy Pollin from a store and use it to self pollinate plants?
No, it expires too quickly. Plus, you would have to hope they had tomato pollen, corn pollen, Cucurbit pollen, etc on hand to purchase. You might need to pollinate your squash and all they had was tomato, for instance.
💚💚
❤️❤️❤️
You can easily hand pollinate corn, by just give them a shake on a still day.
That’s true
The bees here seem to be stuck in cucumbers, so hand pollinating squashes/melons seem to be in order.
That is so odd! I wonder why
So you can cross one tomato plant's pollen with another to create a hybrid... but how specific are plant pollens? Can you use pollen from different plant types. I imagine you could but success would be a lot less likely... but not impossible. Doesn't Mother Nature do it that way from time to time. Heck even in the animal world we have a platypus, duck and beaver parents that didn't diversity get in the way of their love.
Hand pollinating squash feels wrong 😌 iykyk
Hahahaha
I'm not hand pollinating anything unless I can roll it up and smoke it.
As they said ... : " Red hair no soul .." 🤣🤣
When you talk, can you not use vocal fry? Wow, it is so annoying to hear. I like your content but I don't think I'll be back often.