squash and zucchini was a bust!

So i have no idea what really happened. i made sure the plants were well fed, we had a heck of a lot of rain, and my squash and zucchini plants always have bees around them (and some even taking naps inside of the male flowers it seems, lol). But yet out of four plants, i have only received one single patty pan squash this year so far. there were other female blooms that existed before i harvested this one squash, but they all just suddenly vanished without even so much as a trace. and on the zucchini plants, every female bloom yellowed up and rotted away before the bud at the tip ever got the chance to even open to receive pollination. And then i hear of other people in my area that has squash running out of their ears! I did plant my squash in a "3 sisters" setup, with corn and beans, could that have affected it any?

My patty pan squash plants are still growing and the vine getting longer, but it seems like they refuse to put out any additional female blooms, yet i am seeing lots and lots of male blooms.

This message was edited Jul 21, 2016 9:05 PM

Same here! I got 2 squash and 1 zucchini. The cucumbers were also a bust.

my cukes did kind of ok, just enough to snack on here or there. If the year wouldnt have had such a rough start with so much rain that it was ridiculous, i still believe part of that had to do with the lousy gardening year this time around, because i lost all but 2 of my tomato plants to over-watering stress due to that rain too. But now my sweet corn, that went absolutely bonkers, LOL

Cucurbits will not evenly pollinate in high heat combined with high humidity. Like other veggies, the pollen clumps at varying temperatures. Another possible problem is cucumber beetles get inside the female flowers and contaminate the fruit tip which then aborts. Look for small holes on newly closed flowers. Remove flower and tear open to see if you have beetles. I remove female flowers and smash the bases as soon as fruit appears pollinated.

that may be an explanation for the zucchini, but i wonder what was behind the scallop squash plants refusal to develop any more female blooms entirely after it gave me that first one.

I had the same problem with my zucchini ,only get one . All the flowers just withered and died but the plant is still there .

We are still picking straight neck and yellow. Only three plants of each but I had five straight necks to make a squash casserole a few days ago that we finished tonight and five more picked this morning. A zucchini that spent time on the vine got stuffed and baked several nights ago (pic #1) and another, more reasonable one ended up in a vegetable pilaf last night (pic #2). Squash can be so testy. They take up a lot of space and it's either feast or famine. I'm only having a fair year and will probably get just a few more out of my plants.

Did any of you try hand pollenation?

kinda hard to when the female blooms dont even develop, lol. ;)

True...I was referring to the zukes. Lol

it was strange because the zuke blooms were rotting before the blooms could even be opened up to be pollinated

Okay....now I am feeling a bit better about my terrible year with zucs and cucs. Last year was a huge crop and this year....well, just awful! But, that's the way with gardening. Some years are better for certain things and not so good for others. Then, the next year it seems to kind of switch. We have plenty of bees in the garden, but they were all over the herbs and I never say them on the cucs. Picky, picky, picky little creatures. I did the best with onions and cabbage this year.

our bees are the same with with moms rose of sharon bushes, they will stay on those all day long, and maybe go for some of the stuff in my garden as a last resort, lol. I do see plenty of little sweat bees flying around in the actual garden though.

Finally, now, with summer almost over, I am getting some decent zucs. Not cucs, though. Terrible year here for those longed for veggies.

Winter squash did well this year, Black Beauty zucchini did not.
I'm looking for another Zuke variety for next year, any color, good taste.
Ambassador, Aristocrat, Golden, Gold Rush?? Any recommendations?