Enlist the steps of controlled cross-pollination. Would esasculation be needed in a cucurbit plant? Give reasons for your answer.

Explanation

Steps of controlled cross-pollination are
(i) Selection of parents with desired characters.
(ii) Emasculation, i.e., if the femele parent bears bisexual flowers, before dehiscence anther sholul.d be removed by forceps.
(iii) Baggin, i.e., emasculated flowers have to be covvered with a bag of suitable size, generally made up of butter paper, to prevent contamination of its stigma with unwanted pollen.
(iv) When the stigma of bagged flower attains receptivity, mature pollen grains collected from anthers of the male parent are dusted on the sigma
(v) The folowers are rebagged and the fruits are allowed to develop.
Emasculation is not always needed ina cucurbit plant. Emasculation is essential only in case of bisecual flowers to provent self-polination. In case of cucurbit plant, femele parent produces usually unisexual flowers but may sometimes have bisexual flowers.
Note If the female parent produces unisexual flowers, there is no need for emasculation. The female flower buds are bagged before the flowers open. When the sigma becomes receptive, pollination is carried out using the desired pollen and the flower rebagged.