Spaghetti Squash: Hand-Pollinating to Prevent Fruit From Dying

Spaghetti squash fruit sometimes dies on the vine. The only way to get your plants to set fruit is to hand-pollinate them. Share this video! https://youtu.be/Ukmdwz2Xtps Subscribe to my channel for more great homesteading ideas http://www.youtube.com/user/ruggedhomestead?sub_confirmation=1 Today at the Rugged Homestead, we give Mother Nature an assist by manually pollinating our spaghetti squash and butternut squash vines by hand. Soon we'll need to do our summer squash and zucchini as well. I show you how easy it is to hand pollinate plants by transferring the pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers with a cotton swab. I also show you how to differentiate between the male and female flowers. It's a quick and easy job that ensures your squash plants have a high percentage of fruit that actually sets. With your cotton swab in hand, here's what you do: Step 1: Identify the male flower Step 2: Rub the cotton swab on the carpel, the tall antennae-like part of the flower sticking up out of the petals. It will coat the cotton swab in pollen. Step 3: Identify the female flower -- it's the one growing on the end of the fruit Step 4: Rub the pollen-laden cotton swab on the female flower's stamen And that's it! You've just done the work of the bees and other pollinators in your garden and have pollinated your spaghetti squash. It works the same for butternut squash, summer squash, zucchini, and many more plants in your garden! LET'S CONNECT! The Rugged Homestead Blog http://theruggedhomestead.blogspot.com Subscribe to my channel for more great homesteading ideas http://www.youtube.com/user/ruggedhomestead?sub_confirmation=1 Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ruggedhomestead Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/RuggedHomestead Follow us on Tumblr http://ruggedhomesteader.tumblr.com