How To Hand Pollinate a Watermelon Flower
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How’s it going gardeners? I am back with another video and this time, I want to show you how I like to hand-pollinate a watermelon flower! I was experimenting with growing watermelons hydroponically and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to show you at least a little bit about growing watermelons in general.
You can read on further for a step-by-step and watch the video for visual details on the process of pollination. If you enjoy my content, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter, social media, and to the FateWorks Farms YouTube channel for your much appreciated support!
Hand-Pollinating Watermelon Flowers
The first question that you might be asking yourself is “Why might one need to hand-pollinate in the first place?” Watermelon plants develop separate male and female flowers; outdoors, we have bees and other insects that help carry pollen from flower to flower, but since I am growing indoors for this video, I need to do it by hand. Keep in mind that when growing outdoors, if there is a lack of insect activity in your area, you will still need to pollinate by hand if you want more than just a pretty plant to look at. The process is simple; in order to get a successful fruit, we need to bring pollen from the anther of the male flower to the stigma of the female flower.
In order to tell the flowers apart, note that the female flower will have a tiny immature fruit at the base where the male flower will only have a stem.
Depicted in this image, you’ll see a few examples of a watermelon’s male flowers on the left side and an open female flower ready for pollination on the right.
To hand pollinate your female watermelon flowers, here are two simple methods that you can use:
- Method #1: Clip one of the male flowers from the vine and gently remove all of the petals; we want to expose the anthers in the center of the flower, as these carry the pollen we need to pollinate the female flower. Simply dab and swab the pollen-covered anthers onto the stigmas at the center of the female flower, ensuring as much contact as possible. I like to do this a few times and with different male flowers just to make sure that I’m getting the job done.
- Method #2: Grab a makeup brush or a brush with soft bristles. Dab, swab, and rotate the bristles of the brush onto the anthers of a male flower to pick up some of the pollen, then transfer onto the stigmas of an open female flower. Again, I will do this a few times, with multiple male flowers, even throughout the day if I can.
You will know if you have achieved successful pollination of your female watermelon flower if it does not yellow and fall off within a few days. Growth of the immature fruit is also a good sign of success.
FECiDA 1000W Dimmable LED Grow Light
The watermelon plant seen in this video grew under these lights! I’ve been using these for a while now and I am definitely a huge fan.
Wrap-up
This was a quick video and post coupled with a few tips on growing your very own watermelon; successful pollination is ultimately one of the most important aspects of actually getting a fruit on one of these beautiful vines, so I thought I’d share that with you and I really hope you liked and learned something from this. As a last tip before I conclude this post, remember that if you have multiple varieties of watermelon growing and you’d like to save the seed from these plants, use new or clean brushes in between pollinating varieties so that you do not cross-pollinate them…you never know what you’re gonna get (which is the fun of it all)!
I will be making more videos like these in the future so remember to head on over and Subscribe on YouTube so that you don’t miss out; your support is much welcome and appreciated. I love growing food and I’d love to see more people trying it out for themselves, so do share and pass it on!
See you next time!
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