Pollinators: No Bees, No Squash

Why it matters

Many fruiting crops cannot make fruit unless an insect moves pollen from flower to flower. Pumpkin vines can be completely barren without pollinators, and watermelon flowers need repeated bee visits to make full, well-shaped fruit. Feed and protect your bees and your harvest goes up for free.

Step by step

1. Know which crops need bees Squash, pumpkins, melons, watermelon and most cucumbers need insect pollination. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant self-pollinate but set better when bumble bees and native bees shake their flowers.
2. Plant a flower strip next to the garden Mix flowers that bloom in different seasons so something is always open. Blue and purple flowers are especially attractive to bees.
3. Leave room for native bees to nest About 70% of bees nest in the ground, so leave a patch of bare, undisturbed soil and a little mud. Small brush piles and some untidy corners help too.
4. Hand-pollinate when bees are scarce In the morning, pick an open male squash flower, pull off the petals, and dab the pollen onto the center of open female flowers (the ones with a tiny fruit under the bloom).
5. Never spray open blooms when bees are working Cucurbit flowers open shortly after sunrise and close by late afternoon, and bees visit from early morning to mid-afternoon. If you must spray, do it in the evening with a short-residual, low-hazard product and follow the label's bee warnings.
6. Pull row covers at bloom Row covers keep pests off young squash and cucumbers, but take them off when flowers appear so bees can get in.

Key facts

• USDA estimates about 75 percent of plants rely on animal or insect pollination, and 35 percent of food crops depend on it (cited by AgriLife).
• There are over 4,000 bee species in the U.S.; some native bees are far more efficient pollinators than honey bees on tomatoes and pumpkins.
• Only bumble bees and solitary bees buzz-pollinate tomatoes, peppers and eggplant; honey bees do not.
• A watermelon flower needed about eight bee visits for well-shaped fruit in Florida research; fruit set dropped sharply with only two to four visits.
• Squash plants produce male flowers several days before female flowers, so the first fruits often abort.
• One male squash flower can pollinate one or more female flowers.
• Green beans, peas and sweet corn do not need insect pollination; leafy and root crops only need it if you save seed.

Texas notes

• AgriLife and Travis County Master Gardeners list proven Texas bee plants including bee balm/horsemint, Gregg's mistflower, blue mistflower, autumn sage, purple coneflower, Indian blanket, Mexican hat, coreopsis, cosmos, sunflower, goldenrod, asters, prairie verbena, Texas lantana, partridge pea, bluebonnet, anise hyssop, borage, oregano and rosemary.
• For fast bloom, AgriLife horticulturists recommend sweet alyssum, pot marigold/calendula, borage, sunflowers and cosmos.
• Gregg's blue mistflower and Gulf Coast penstemon are native picks recommended by AgriLife; the mistflower blooms in fall when food is scarce.
• Herbs like basil ('African Blue'), oregano, mint and rosemary feed bees if you let some flower.
• Clovers, henbit and dandelions in the lawn are early bee food; mow less in spring if you can.