pollinating curcubits

I was watching this short clip about a farmer who grows giant pumpkins in NSW,


which was more of a spectacle than anything else, but he showed his technique of hand pollinating the pumpkin flowers. After a whole season of 2 flowers of zucchinis a week for 4 months and only one modest zucchini, I was pretty pissed off to learn, a fortnight after I cut them out for winter, that I could probably have hand pollinated the zuucks, and got dozens of them...

Here's the farmer

https://open.abc.net.au/projects/my-crazy-passion-09qa6xy/contributions/video-56gp8zr

here's a good page on hand pollination - it covers the actual gender differentiation and technique well enough (having not tested the advice)- forgive and overlook the annoying anthropomorphisations of the sexual reproduction of the zucchini.

http://littleveggiepatchco.com.au/blogs/news/8430939-hand-pollination

this youtube is also good and demonstrates the technique well -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldQCaruiYss

I have been using this technique to good effect this year, and have some fine Lebanese zucchinis, a pumpkin, and a rogue Japanese yellow pumpkin. I will photo the latter and put it up.