The Sexy Garden

"YOO-Hoo!"  "Over here, Big Guy!"  "Look what I have!"  The catcalls are almost audible to human ears.  I am pretty sure I once heard a Mae West impersonator say, "Is that a pistil in your pocket?"  For those too young to know Mae West, Google her.  For those who think "pistil" is misspelled, read on.  

Working bee kicks smaller pollinator away from the pistil

Humans seem to think we have a monopoly on sex and maybe that is because it is a bit unnerving to think of food as being someone's offspring.  Not just animals we eat, but plants we consume are results of a sexual act.  Fruits and vegetables, rooted to the ground and unable to move, depend upon help to procreate and their efforts to entice pollinators can be pretty blatant.  Take summer squash, for example . . . 

Female squash blossom, inspiration for artists

Cucurbit family members, including summer squash, cucumbers, gourds, and pumpkins produce beautiful blossoms that attract pollinators to gather pollen.  As honeybees, squash bees and other winged insects travel from male to female blossoms, the plant receives help it needs to set fruit.  Male squash blossoms boast a smaller stamen, or pistil, than females and only female blossoms produce fruit.  Fully mature squash contain seeds that produce plants the following year, completing a generational life cycle.  

Successfully pollinated squash set fruit

All goes well for heirloom seed savers, unless different Cucurbit species grow in close proximity.  You see, Cucurbits will use pollen from other family members, producing offspring in future generations that are unlike the parents.  For this reason, gardeners who wish to save "pure" seed only grow a particular Cucurbit species or else separate those promiscuous plants. 

Male on left produces pollen for the female, right, that yields fruit

When I inherited my grandmother's heirloom squash seeds, it was like having a part of her back with me when I harvested zucchini, patty pan, crook neck and straight neck varieties.  A few years ago, seed catalogs arrived in my mailbox and the breathtakingly beautiful photographs of squash enticed me to try some new seeds.  Throwing caution to the wind, in the same field, I planted a colorful menagerie of about twenty different summer squash species.  With an abundant harvest, I saved seeds from the best fruit and found, the following year, the new plants produced some of the oddest looking squash I ever saw.  The taste was delicious, but there was hardly a single fruit that contained pure traits. 

Cross-pollinated heirloom squash fruit

I did not plant summer squash at Heart & Sole in 2015.  Although I grew some of my grandmother's crook necks at my home, for seed, the entire farm crop generated from those cross-pollinated fruits, left in the field from last year. As I tallied statistics a few weeks ago, I was astounded at the squash results.  Volunteer summer squash produced fruit from early June until early October and the total yield was over 600 pounds.  Not only were these Crazy Cucurbits fertile, but very successful in their enticement efforts.  Mae West would be proud . . .

More examples of cross-pollination