We all know that without pollination, our lovely plants wouldn’t bloom.
But how do you know that a flower has been pollinated?
Or, when you aren’t going to get any fruit and vegetables because pollination didn’t take place?
There are a couple of ways to tell that a flower is in the early stages of pollination.
And, if it isn’t, you might even be able to pollinate it manually.
These are some information about how to tell if a flower has been pollinated or not.
Within a flower, between flowers of the same plant or flowers of different plants, or even within a flower itself, pollinations can take place.
There are the self-pollinators that pollinate themselves.
They have their pollen and don’t need other flowers to pollinate them.
Examples of these types of flowers are tomatoes, lima beans, and English peas.
Typically, these plants always have fruit on them, without any problems.
Self-pollinatiors have 2 sub-types:
Pollen grains move from the anther to the stigma within the same flower in this type of self-pollination.
Autogamy depends on the anther and stigma’s coordinated opening, maturation, and exposure.
It must meet two requirements in order to occur:
The process of self-pollination known as geitonogamy involves the movement of pollen grains from the anther to the stigma between various flowers on the same plant.
Both gametes originate from the same plant, despite the fact that what appears to be cross-pollination occurs with the assistance of pollinators.
The other type of pollination is cross-pollinators.
This is where pollination only takes place from one plant to the next.
Cross-pollination caused by pollen grain transfer across flowers of two different plants is known as Xenogamy.
If you only have one plant of a particular vegetable, then pollination won’t take place.
You need two or more plants to get usable fruit or vegetables.
Some examples of vegetables are radish and cabbage.
The last type of pollination is where the plants have their pollen, but they can pollinate other plants.
This is a debate that is going on for years.
Especially if you have the male and female flower, but the female isn’t pollinated already?
It happens when there aren’t any insects that can pollinate the flowers or when the flowers are hard to reach.
Some say there is no way to pollinate the flowers yourself; you will need insects or wind for the process.
However, some people claim that you can do it yourself as well. What is the truth?
If you know how to get the pollen from the male flower, you can pollinate yourself.
You do this by taking the male flower and rubbing it against the female flower.
Alternatively, you can open the male flower up and transfer some of the pollen from the male onto the female.
In general, what are the early signs of pollination?
How do you know that a flower pollination is successful and that you will have some fruit or vegetables?
The first way to see if flowers have been pollinated is by observing your garden.
See if there are many insects like bees and hummingbirds, and butterflies in your garden.
If you see them going from one plant to the next a couple of times, you can be sure they are pollinated.
This means that you need to sit in your garden for quite a while to see if this does happen.
The other method is to observe the flowers and notice if they wilt.
Wilting occurs typically 24 hours after flower .
You will see that the flower’s ovule will begin to bulge.
It is relatively easy to see if a tomato flower has been pollinated.
There are some signs easy to tell.
One of these signs is if the hair-like center of the flower will go from white to dark and shrivel in size.
If the flower has been pollinated, the flower will stay fresh-looking.
A flower that doesn’t have been pollinated will dry out and die.
Within a week or two, a small green tomato will start to grow from the flower.
From there, it will grow quickly and become ripe and ready for harvest in no time.
With cucumbers, it is harder to see if their flowers pollination succeed.
And, there is always a chance that the flowers pollination failed at all.
Then, you should do it yourself.
Luckily this is possible – you just need to know how.
How do you know when cucumber flowers pollination is a success?
This is the same as tomatoes.
You will see that the center of the flower will grow in size and start to swell.
After a while, you will start to see the small green cucumber growing.
If the flower didn’t pollinate, you would see that the flower starts to die.
And, when this happens, it is too late for you to pollinate the flowers yourself.
With pumpkin flowers, you will find both males and females in one plant.
However, it doesn’t mean that the flowers will pollinate automatically.
Just like the cucumbers, you might do it yourself by taking the male closer to the female.
To see if the pumpkin flower pollination is a success, you will need to look early in the morning.
This is when the flowers open and you can see if they start to swell or not.
The moment that it gets warm, the flowers close up, and it will be harder to see.
With any other flower that doesn’t have pollinated, it will start to dry up and die.
You need to pollinate the flower fast if you don’t want it to die before it undergoes pollination.
Now you know how your flowers will look if pollination is successful.
And, if they didn’t pollinate, you can do it for them.
You need to know which flower is the male.
And, you need to take the male and make sure that the pollen reaches the female.
Most of the flowers look the same when after a successful pollination.
The flower’s ovule will begin to bulge and gets bigger.
After a week or so, you will start to see a tiny fruit or vegetable growing.