Squash amd Zucchini

[Paulie2]

Every year I try to grow squash and zucchini but I get nothing. The plants grow big and large. Once I got 1 squash and that was it. Some one told me the acid in my soil was to high so I put in lime, just big plants. need help!

Everyone in my neighborhood gets them with no problems.

Thanks, Paul

 

[patandchickens]

Do you get flowers but no fruits, or do you not get flowers either?


Pat

 

[silkiechicken]

Now that's an interesting problem.... I grow mine in little holes dug right into where the chicken tractors sat the previous year... and I don't add lime.... If you get flowers... do you use any pesticides or the sort that may be detering polinators?

 

[whatnow?]

I'm right there with you, Paul. My attempts at zucchini have been pitiful. The plants always flowered but never produced fruit fast enough to compete with the little critters. Actually, we had a major slug problem but I didn't recognize it in time. Blooms would come and then the fruits would start. I can't remember what happened next. It's been years.

Count your blessings and eat your neighbors. Wait... I mean... eat your neighbor's veggies, not your neighbors...

 

[Rosalind]

If you are getting flowers but no fruits, it could be a couple of things:

1. Lack of pollinators (bees, etc.), which can be cured by taking a Q-tip of pollen from a male flower and sticking it in a female flower

2. No female flowers because of hot nights.

Squash only set female flowers when there's a temperature difference of I forget how much. It has to get cool at night, basically, down to like 60 degrees or so. So if you're in an area that never does get very cool at night, or if your summers are so hot that it's hot at night too, or if you've got them planted right next to a big piece of masonry (patio, boulder, foundation of a house) then they won't cool off at night enough to set female flowers.

 

[silkiechicken]

2. No female flowers because of hot nights.

Squash only set female flowers when there's a temperature difference of I forget how much. It has to get cool at night, basically, down to like 60 degrees or so. So if you're in an area that never does get very cool at night, or if your summers are so hot that it's hot at night too, or if you've got them planted right next to a big piece of masonry (patio, boulder, foundation of a house) then they won't cool off at night enough to set female flowers.

I did not know that. Learn something new every day. We don't have that problem here... summer nights are usually in the 50's, no wonder there is always an abundance of zucchinis.

Does anyone know why the first 3-4 flowers are always male? Or is it just some odd regional thing here?