HAND POLLINATION:THE ADVANTAGES

HAND POLLINATION:THE ADVANTAGES

What is Hand Pollination and what are the advantages? Hand pollination is the manual transfer of pollen from the stamen, or male part, of the flower to the pistil, or female part. The purpose of hand pollination is to assist in the reproductive process of the plant. Hand pollination techniques depend on the plant’s sexuality as well as the reason for the process.

The simplest of the hand pollination techniques for plants that produce hermaphrodite flowers is to shake the plant. These self-fertile flowers contain both male and female parts. Examples of garden plants with hermaphrodite flowers include tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. A light breeze is usually sufficient to assist hermaphrodite flowers with the process of sexual reproduction. Growing these plants in a sheltered area, such as a walled garden, greenhouse, or indoors, can result in low fruit yields and the need to pollinate by hand.

Advantages of Hand Pollination 

• Primarily, hand pollination improves crop yield in spite of a reduction in the populations of pollinators. In recent times, bees have faced an increased spread of infection from parasites and disease. Pesticides and intensive farming practices have also taken their toll on many species of pollinating insects. Crops that are affected by a drop in pollinator populations include corn, squash, pumpkins, and melons. These monecious plants produce both male and female flowers on the same plant, but each individual flower will contain either male or female parts.

• It  is useful in controlling the parents of a seed. For example, all F1 hybrids are the result of pollinating one specific variety with another specific variety in order to produce a uniform crop.

• Some high-value crops are covered with rows of mesh to prevent pests and insects from accessing them. This makes it necessary to hand -pollinate the blooms.

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