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How can you tell if a squash, gourds,
or melons flower is male or female?
On squash, this is very easy to do. Female flowers will always have a tiny fruit (ovary) under the flower. Male flowers grow on a long narrow stem. You can also tell the two apart by looking at the reproductive organs found in the center of the flower. The female flowers also contain the stigma.
How do I get more female flowers?
A Birds and the Bees Technique.
If you are not seeing any vegetable production there are a few tricks that can help you out. Sometimes you are just missing some ‘birds and bees’ actions and will need to play that roll yourself, to do the pollination, until they find your plants.
If your plant produces more female than male flowers, you can harvest the male flowers and store them in a vase of water in the refrigerator for up to two days. Use the saved male flowers to pollinate the female blossoms. You can use one male flower to pollinate up to three female flowers.
You can also take a paintbrush and collect the pollen from one male flower to the female flowers.