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djonesc

zucchini ... flowers, no fruit ...

djonesc
9 years ago

i planted late; plenty of water, alaska fish fertilizer, heat and everything the plant needed .... HOWEVER .... no fruit, no baby zucchinis ... nada, nothing ....

suggestions i can do this late in the season, 03 august ...

thank you so much for all your time and info ....

darlene

Comments (13)

  • ltilton
    9 years ago

    Try hand pollinating

  • farmerdill
    9 years ago

    If you have female flowers of course. Many times particularly on OP varieties, the males appear several weeks before the females. Patience may reward you.

  • djonesc
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    thank you for the responses ... i am not sure how to tell female flowers from male ... plus, hand pollinating might now work, the flowers come and go very quickly ... i'm hoping, i suppose, *patience may reward [me]* .... really hoping, unless there are other things i can do to speed up the process, like more fish fertilizer, etc .....

    thanks so much ..... darlene

  • theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
    9 years ago

    The female flowers will have a small squash behind the blossom. It's always there even before the squash flower is open. A male flower will just have a skinny stem.

    Rodney

  • ltilton
    9 years ago

    The early bird pollinates the squash. You have to get out early every morning, hope to have male and females flowers both blooming, and do the deed. Waiting til evening won't work, the flowers will be closed by then.

  • djonesc
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    it's late in the season where we live and i'm saving this info for next year ... thank you all for your great advice; i have planted zuch for years and years and never had this problem -- the foliage is lovely, green and lush ... NO FRUIT, though ....

    so, why did it not self pollinate and why all the other years there were no problems? how can i alleviate this next year, when i did the same now as then? what different should i do? also ... our garden is tiny this year and i only planted one zuch, could that be it? would a second have facilitated a crop? .... OR????

    thank you all again ..... darlene

  • planterjeff
    9 years ago

    I've been having issues with my female flowers growing large and then dying right before they open. Finally I decided to pick one and slice it open as I noticed it had began to yellow. Sure enough there was some small larva/worm/caterpillar in there! Ive sprayed BT/neem/soap anything possible, but those things are still finding their way into my blooms. They aren't anywhere else, just in the blooms:(

  • aniajs
    9 years ago

    It's been a frustrating zucchini season for me, too. Planted two plants next to each other in my garden box, but one got shredded in a freak June hail storm. The other plant recovered nicely and has great growth despite squash bugs, but I've yet to get any fruit from it. It will throw 4 to 5 male flowers, then a week later 3 to 4 female flowers, but there is no overlap and thus no way for pollination (either by hand or naturally) to occur...

  • djonesc
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    OMGosh ... went out and looked at the lone flower, and lo, behind it is a ZUCCHINI .... A REAL ZUCCHINI .... amazing, unbelievable, i can't wait .... one zucchini out of the whole, entire season ....

    aniaj ... i know what you mean, the entire season has been like this ... hale storm knocked blossoms of (and tiny yellow tomatoes, too!) and set the zucchini back a lot ... i hope your plants recover and reward you with some fruit ...

    thank you for your responses .... advice for next year???? i really need it ....

    darlene

  • Springy
    9 years ago

    I also suggest hand pollinating if you have female flowers. (the ones that look like they have a tiny zucchini attached to them.) I had a problem until now with the bees not yet discovering the vegetable patch and so none were being pollinated.

    The bees have since discovered it and it's doing much better. Good luck and glad you got your one zucchini- I bet more will follow!!

  • naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
    9 years ago

    You mention you have a smaller garden and only one zucchini plant this year. You need to have a male and female flower both blooming on the same day (and each flower only blooms for one day). Having more plants ups the chances that both kinds will be present on any given day. So yes, having only one plant could be part of the problem.

  • naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
    9 years ago

    A bit more on the multiple plants for more flowers story:

    Zucchini can be pollinated by any Cucurbita pepo varieties which include acorn squash, spaghetti squash, delicata squash, many pumpkins, and some other vining squashlike varieties. So while having only one C. pepo plant can limit flower availability, you could add more plants to help with pollination that would produce something themselves that would not be a zucchini. Your squashes/pumpkins/zucchini would all develop true to type....just don't save seed and expect to grow uncrossed varieties from them in later years.

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