Can I pollinate my zucchini with my yellow summer squash flowers?

So Im up here in the Southwest corner of North Dakota, I planted zucchini, have lost at least a dozen that grew a couple inches, rotted, then fell off. I figure it's from lack of me being able to successfully hand pollinate, the reason being the male flowers come in way before the female flowers.



I went out to check on my zucchini plant (bush type) earlier today, there are six zucchini right now and as far as male flowers, they are just barely starting to grow. I've had one zucchini grow all summer long. My question is, can I use the male flowers on my summer sqaush plant to pollinate the female zucchini flowers?



I'm having the same problem with my summer squash by the way-except reversed. There is an over-abundance of male flowers that grow in and then die away, then the female flowers come. I haven't lost as many summer squash as zucchini, because they just don't seem to be growing as well. As a matter of fact, in a couple days, my first summer squash of the summer will be ready.



I hope someone can give me an answer, because if I don't hear anything, I'm going to pollinate my zucchini anyway with the summer squash and see what happens. It's better than just letting them rot on the vine. Thanks!

"can I use the male flowers on my summer squash plant to pollinate the female zucchini flowers?"

I do as long as I am not planning to save seed (squash in general don't tend to cross pollinate).

Thanks so much happycamper! I'm glad to hear it doesn't cross pollenate. Hopefully I will have much more success now for the rest of our short season up here!

Thank you again, I appreciate it!

I did the same thing recently, and the zucchini I picked yesterday looks just fine.

With my patty pans the male flowers were just a day or two behind the females so I collected the pollen and brought it inside so the a/c could keep it from getting too hot and then used it on the females when they opened in the am. That worked just dandy.

I had the good fortune of having a neighbor who also planted some squash plants. That way, when I had females open but no males, I didn't worry about it because I knew the bees would bring over my neighbor's pollen and help my girls out