When the bee population in your garden is too low for good fruit set, you can substitute for the bees by pollinating by hand. Hand pollination is a tedious chore, but if you really like squash and there are no bees in your garden, it's the only way you will be able to harvest a crop. You can use a small artist's paintbrush to transfer pollen, or you can break off a male
flower, remove its petals to expose the pollen-bearing structure, and roll the pollen onto the stigma, the structure in the center of the female
flower. The pollen is yellow and produced on the structure in the center of the male
flower.
flowers open early in the day and are receptive for only one day. When hand pollinating, it's important to use only the freshly opened
flowers. The female
flower has a small fruit behind the
flower. The male
flower is long and slender.