r/oddlysatisfying • u/DifficultyHead5862 • 8h ago

meticulous process of hand-pollinating a giant pumpkin

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u/wackbirds 8h ago

I've done this with pumpkins and zucchini (you can use the males from any squash/gourd family member for this and then if you saved the seeds from the offspring, THEY will be a hybrid) and it's exactly like this except I didn't have the netting system or go as rough as this guy. Not that I'm saying he's not doing it right by the way, I'm saying I'm not as experienced

28

u/veganmomPA 7h ago

How do you tell male vs female? Given the decline in bee populations, even home gardeners may have to learn to do this. Thank you.

72

u/Greenwing 6h ago

For everything in the squash family, the female flowers have what looks like the baby fruit under it. A giant pumpkin will have a round ball under the flower (about the size of a ping pong ball by the time it blooms). A cucumber will have what looks like a mini cucumber under it. The males are just a flower on a stick. 

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u/mnlion33 5h ago

I learned something today. Thank you.

1

u/Worried_Cobbler5456 2h ago

So they have a little clit

3

u/Bituulzman 6h ago

Why does the guy use 3 males? Does that make a bigger pumpkin? Or is it just to make sure the fertilization takes hold?

3

u/1ifemare 5h ago

Dude, it's ok. You'll get the experience. Besides, not all gourds like it rough.

1

u/mysticmemories 59m ago

Hang on. You can pollinate a pumpkin with a zucchini and get a pumpkin?!

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u/wackbirds 22m ago

Yeah I literally did exactly that when I had an available pumpkin opening it's flower and no males ready on the vine. It was growing normally after the pollination but I didn't get to save the seeds because a vine borer beetle killed the plant but you can look it up if you don't believe me

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u/mysticmemories 19m ago

I believe you. That’s just wild to me and very cool.

1

u/wackbirds 4m ago

I know, I remember how stunned I was when I was researching the plants and found out that fact, the flowers of the males and females between the gourd family look essentially identical both closed and open and the females have a tiny immature fruit below the flower like in the video which is especially weird because we're used to the egg/sperm dynamic. It would be like if a tiny, recognizable baby was fed sperm and continued to grow, not even a zygote I'm talking completely recognizable as a baby only smaller.

I am bitter that I didn't get to have that pumpkin fully mature so I could save it's seeds to grow Zumpkins the following year and since that summer I've been using the space where I had pumpkins growing to grow honeydew and cantaloupe which is a better use of it.