Pollination

Pollination

Pollination refers to the necessary process of all flowering plants to produce fruit and seeds. For pollination to happen, pollen from male parts of flowers (or male flowers) must be transferred to female parts of flowers (or female flowers). A technical way to describe this process is to say that pollen grains must be transferred from an anther onto the surface of the stigma and the stigma must accept the pollen. Only pollen from the same species will be accepted by a stigma. Pollination can also be affected by conditions like temperature and humidity (ref: The Seed Garden, etc.) Pollen can be transferred by insects, wind or human hand. 

Pollination is crucial to food and seed production and insects are crucial to pollination for many plants. Insect pollinators can include honey bees, native bees, ants, wasps, bugs, flies and many more. The best way to protect and promote insect pollinators (and therefore ensure bumper food and seed crops) is to not use any chemical additives and to plant for biodiversity, including lots of flowering plants that will attract insects to your garden.

Many herb and vegetable plants have complete flowers which contain both male and female parts. Pollination happens when pollen is transferred within the flower. Some plants (notably cucumbers, zucchinis and pumpkins) grow separate male and female flowers on the plant. Pollination happens when pollen is transferred from a male flower to a female flower. A few plants (more common with fruit but also asparagus) will only produce either male or female flowers on each plant meaning that for pollination to occur, both male and female plants need to be grown. Pollination happens when pollen is carried from the male plant to the female plant.  

Different plants are pollinated by different methods

The type of flower of a plant determines the method of pollination. 

Perfect flowers

Perfect flowers contain both male and female parts.

Imperfect flowers (botanically speaking!)

Imperfect flowers contain either male or female parts. 

Cross-pollination

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Hand pollination (be the bee!)

Hand pollination is the process by which human beings, not insects, act as pollinator.

Genetic diversity

For healthy plants and strong seed, it’s important to promote genetic diversity which means providing conditions for as much cross-pollination as possible between plants of the same variety. 

Last updated byseedsaversorgauadmin