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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