Hi all! I got some squash plants that have many flowers but no fruit. It’s been decent weather and they are huge. Any thoughts?
If you haven’t seen any pollinators you might have to play squash pimp.
It involves getting up early in the morning though. Be warned.
If you haven’t seen any female blooms (they look like baby squashes with a flower on the end) be patient, they’ll show up sooner or later.
When we looked into a similar problem earlier this year, we found out that sometimes squash plants have mono(all one sex) flowers that die with out producing fruit. Then they get more flowers that are both male and female, and you get produce from the plant.
Other potential causes. Not enough pollinaters in your garden. Hand pollinate, and plant some flowers to attract bees etc.
Deficient nutrients in the soil. If the plants are growing well and a nice healthy green, then you probably need more potassium/phosphorus or trace minerals.
No solutions, but join the “no squash” club this year! My garden had 99% male flowers - beautiful blooms, but no squash. I had 3 baby zucchini ... one never grew, the other two rotted on the vine while maybe 2-3 inches long. My yellow squash had not a single one form - all male flowers again. My aunt, who has a green thumb and generally has a great garden, had zero, zip, zilch nada squash this year! Nobody is having much luck. I had plenty of pollinators so that doesn’t seem to be the issue. Peppers and tomatoes are doing fine. We had a discussion on a previous garden thread [July 12?] about zuchetta tromboncino rampicante [aka zuchetta, or tromboncino]. Resistant to squash bugs, prolific producer, flesh is a bit more like a winter squash. Here’s a link:
http://www.gardenbetty.com/2011/10/zucchino-rampicante/
A FReeper gardener looked up seed sources for me:
http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1100/400
http://www.southernexposure.com/tromboncino-squash-summer-3-g-p-163.html
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=VSQ-5469#.UeCI1FLD9dh C . Maxima (richer flavor)