Getting Involved in the Se/ Life of my Plants

**NO! This is not x-rated....I typed se/ so I don't get weird perverted comments....

Hey, did you know that some plants have male and female flowers?

Things like squash and melons and cucumbers?

Yes, they do!

See, here's a cucumber plant with the little fruit at the end of the flower. It's the female flower:

And here's a melon plant with the little fruit at the end of the flower (another female):

And here's a male flower.....no fruit....

I couldn't figure out why I was getting tiny little cucumbers, and then they weren't turning into big cucumbers, so I turned to the trusty google on line and asked that important question:

Why are my cucumbers drying up and falling off?

The answer:

Because they are not being properly fertilized. Ummm, go back to your basic biology class people if you want to know the details.

So I have to aid Mother Nature a little, by finding a male flower and putting a little of the pollen from that flower to the center of a female flower.....(yikes, can I say that??)

My only problem is that there seems to be a startling lack of male flowers on my cucumber plants, and an overabundance of female flowers.

My melons are just the opposite. More male flowers and fewer female flowers. The squash don't have that problem. Squash never has a problem reproducing....we all know that.

And that's the story of how I got involved in the Se/ life of my plants.

I'll keep you posted.