Tickling your tomato blossoms and brushing your squash flowers probably aren’t regular tasks on your gardening to-do list, but it turns out that hand pollination, in league with natural processes, can ...

Editor’s note: Get Growing, written by the La Plata County Extension Office’s Master Gardener Program, appears during the growing season. It features timely tips and suggestions for your garden and ...

Sometimes squash blossoms need to be hand-pollinated to produce viable fruit. Cut a male flower (in right hand) and daub its pollen onto the female flower’s pollen (in left hand). A female squash ...

Q. My cucumber and squash are not setting fruit even though the plants appear healthy. I’m not seeing many bees. Can this be part of my problem? A. More than likely this is the result of incomplete ...

Q. I was walking in my vegetable garden the other day and noticed that some of my squash blossoms are falling off. What is going on? Is this an insect problem? What should I do? A. I have gotten ...

This year's cooler-than-usual summer in the Northwest may affect home gardeners' squash crops, according to the Oregon State University Extension Service, which warns that pollinating insects may be ...

Q: I planted watermelon, zucchini and pumpkins in the beginning of June, and they have all just started producing male flowers. No sign of female blossoms. We do not have any bees, so I wanted to ...

We are finally getting the right weather to ripen tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, basil and a whole host of other warm-season crops. We will get a bump into the 90s for a few days and then another ...