All Bloom and No Squash

Jul
1

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The squash and zucchini has been bloomin’ away for weeks….but no squash or zucchini! What is up with that?





Comments

  1. CassieOz says:

    It’s common for squash and zucchini plants to put out quite a lot of male flowers before any female flowers appear. It’s worth looking at the flowers to see what types you’ve got. Flowers on long slim stalks are male and ones on what look like baby zucchini or squash, are female. If the female flowers are fertilised, then the little proto zucchini/squash will swell and grow. If it isn’t fertilised, the tiny zucchini under the flower will wither and fall off.

  2. Miss Judy says:

    Our yellow squash are doing the same thing, its also very small and spindly plant…zucchini is very big plant producing nicely. I am very upset…yellow is my favorite.

  3. Schnoofus says:

    The same thing is happening to me in New Jersey. Lots of male flowers and very few female flowers. Does anyone know if squash blossoms need bees for pollination? Maybe some of the flowers that we are thinking are males are actually unfertilized female flowers. I sure haven’t seen many bumblebees around and pretty sure the flowers need a pollinator besides the wind.

  4. bayvistafarm says:

    Like Cassie said… male flowers come first. AND there is such a thing as a squash bee… maybe you don’t have any of those… but other pollinators work too of course. Have you tried pollinating them yourself?? See what happens?

  5. Diane says:

    We have everything in the greenhouse and have to pollinate ourselves. I flick the tomatoes and use a stick or q-tip for the squash.

  6. holstein woman says:

    If you take the male flower and put the stamen inside the female that will pollinate it and YES they need to be pollinated. You can break off the flower outside and use the stamen for several female flowers, if you have bee problems you may have to continue or until the bees find the plants.

  7. AnnieB says:

    Too much rain, not enough sun?

  8. The High Altitude Tea Duchess says:

    Can you ‘help them out’ a bit? Maybe get a feather and dust the females with pollen from the males?

  9. kbryan says:

    I blame the lack of bees. . .

  10. BethAnn says:

    I had this one year and asked my farmer friends at the farmer’s market where I bought the wee zucchini plant what was up. Their response: If you have flowers and no zucchini, you have no bees. The flowers didn’t get pollinated.

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