Summer squash question

This is my 1st year growing squashes. I bought a crookneck plant at a local nursery about a month ago and planted it. The plant is bearing fruit already. I have noticed one thing I thought was strange though. First few buds that came out were all female and they all bloomed and the fruit are getting big. At this point, I have decided the plant I have must be a all female producing plant. But then this week, I have been seeing new stems that are going to have flowers but those have thin non-swelling stems. Since I am new to veggy gardening and never had anything that didn't need pollination, I don't know if this is normal or not.
I guess my question is, do female only plants also produce male flowers anyway? Do you think this is some kind of female/male plant that doesn't need pollination?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

tmm

Perfectly normal for the newer hybrids. All squashes have both female and male flowers. The breeders are working hard to develop cultivars with more female blossoms, because there is where the crop begins. Some of the early females will abort due to lack of pollination, but some cultivars will make an edible fruit without pollination. I grow mostly Horn of Plenty which sets fruits before the male blossoms appear.

Farmerdill,

Wow, thank you SO MUCH for the post!
I had no idea.

Every one of the females that came out is now bearing fruit before the males are out.

So does this mean I can pluck all the males before they bloom and fry them up for dinner? That would be great! I think I will watch it for a while and see if I can do this.

tmm

Well, I haven't been plucking any buds so far but I wanted to post this to see if anyone knew what was going on.

My crooknecks (summer squash) get big and flower and then after they flower, they become more bright yellow but they seem to stop growing before they get really big. The sizes of all 5-6 crooknecks I have right now are about 4 inches in length and maybe about 1 inch wide (diameter). I harvested two of them so far to see if anything was wrong, but they seem to be OK. (One of the squashes had a hallow spot where the squash swell (not the "neck" area but the "butt" part of the squash) but the 2nd one seemed to be OK) Would it not grow any bigger than this size? (I don't they didn't get pollinated since female flowers aren't out)? Am I supposed to harvest them at this small size? I know I don't have a miniature kind since by the time they flower, they are already bigger than the miniature and they are still slightly green at that stage.

This is my first year growing zucchini/squashes.

tmm

all I know is they taste better smaller. If you let them get too big, the plsnt stops producing, and they aren't fit to eat. Wish I could tell you why yours are so small. Do you have the seed packet, or variety name, or where you bought them?

Hi Tamara,

I wish I knew what kind it was. I got the seedling from a local nursery and all it said was yellow crookneck.

I am thinking from what Farmerdill said that maybe a few first ones didn't get pollinated and didn't get too big. I checked the plant this evening and the newer fruit (2 of them) are actually already bigger than the 1st few and they don't have the hollowness that the older ones do. (For the newer ones, the whole squashes are firm and the older smaller ones are a little squishy on the buttom half.) So it could be the pollination problem. That, or the weather was crappy for a couple of weeks when the 1st few squahes started growing and maybe that messed something up. I really don't know since like I said, this is my 1st time growing squashes. I didn't know that squash flowers aren't open very long either from what I can see. Maybe two hours, tops? Male flowers close as quickly. When do they get a chance to bet pollinated when the flowers are open for such a short time?

tmm

You can pollinate them yourself! :-)

Tamara,

Yeah, I guess I could pollinate the squash flowers that are open only for about 2 hours if I was rich enough to be able to quit my work and sit in my garden during the day. But if I were that rich, I would probably hire someone else to sit there and pollinate the stuff for me. LOL!

tmm

No, if you were that rich, you would want the leisure of doing it yourself, wouldn't you? Forgot about the two hour part....

oh well, serves me right for helping without thinking.... *G*

Do you have potted flowers you could put around the plant, so as to attract more pollinators? Or go buy some bedding plants and put them out there? It sure helps!

You know, I checked the squash plant this morning. One female flower was blooming, another female one was ready to, but no male flowers anywhere in sight. I am just hoping it was the crappy weather that stuned the growth of the older squashes instead of the non-pollination issue, since for some reason, the newer squashes are already bigger.

Hard to say what's going on.

tmm

Do you have only one plant???

Hi Tamara,

I have three summer squash plants but this problem plant is the only yellow crookneck plant.

tmm

Well, what I meant was, if you had more than one of the yellow crookneck plant. It just might have better pollination that way, you would think so anyhow, I don't really know. Sometimes, you just get a bummer plant. Remember, it came from one seed, which could have been not so perfect for whatever reason. Sure hope you get this figured out, I know how squash lovers are about having ALL their squash LOL

Thank you for all the suggestions, Tamara.
How are your squash plants doing? Does the fruit get pretty big? Am I supposed to pluck the flowers once they bloom or I am supposed to leave them attached to the squash until I harvest?

tmm

I suppose you could remove the male flowers? I have little experience with squash, just everyone i know grows it but me. I can't stand the squash bugs, and I get enough of them with just winter squash, which is what I grow. All my neighbors grow summer squash, and give me more than we can eat.

My Sweet Keeper squash plants are just up. It is a rare squash, and I save the seeds to share them. Makes the best pumpkin pie, I hear. We like it baked. But I didn't water the seedlings today because it was supposed to rain tonight :-)

If you really love your squash, esp the yellow crookneck, I would go ahead and start another plant or two. Doesn't make sense that it's the only one not producing properly?! You deserve to have your squash, and eat it too LOL

Is is doing any different now? Hopefully, it was as Farmer Dill said, just low pollination early on...

Tamara

Hi Tamara,

Thanks for letting me know what plants you have. Good luck on your sweet keeper squash. It sounds great.

My crookneck is the same as before. I guess I can always pick them at 4 inch in length. The other squash (zucchini) plants (I have two) are doing great, so at this point, it doesn't matter if crooneck doesn't produce at all, since it looks like I will have more than enough squashes (zucchinis) to eat from the other 2 plants.

I know what you have is not summer squash, but do you pluck the flowers off squashes once they bloom or you leave them on? Or it doesn't make any difference if you leave the flowers on the squash or off?

tmm

tmm

I have never heard of plucking them off, except to eat. Haven't done that before (yet).

Two zucchini plants will probably keep you eatin squash for a while :-)

This was a nice informative thread. Thanks! I have black beauty zuccini and yellow crookneck squash, table queen acorn squash and I'm thinking of sneaking in some white patty pan squash seeds that are leftovers from a garden a few years ago. Don't know if they will germinate or not. None of mine are big enough yet to flower just yet. But I can't wait.
-Juli

Juli, the more I hear about your garden, the more I want to move back to the Golden Gate State :-) How DO you do it?

Lots of help from my DH. We fenced it in with some chicken wire and I bought one of those simple white arbors at Walmart and he made a gate to close it in. Maybe that will stop the rabbits. I'll take some pics.
-Juli

That's GOOD news...!

Do any of you guys ever have any trouble with squash bores? I didn't want to devote much space in my small garden to squash and zucchini this year because every year they start out so promising, but by mid-summer, they begin to wilt and then die because of the nasty bores. I learned in my master gardener class that you can actually cut the stem open with a razor blade and remove the big nasty beast, then duct tape the hole/slit back up and it should be fine, but I wish I could prevent it from happening to begin with. Any ideas? I have one big gorgeous zucchini and I worship it each day, watching for signs of the bores. Same problem with my cucumbers, they are beautiful now, but I know what's coming.

There was a good thread on that last year, I bumped it up last month. Horseshoe had some good rememdies, both prevention and cure. And next year, scatter radish seed all over your squash bed early on, so that they are going to seed when your squash comes up, it is supposed to repel the moth that lays them...

Was it a thread started by horseshoe, do you happen to remember? Because there is a way to search for threads with a keyword, only started by one particular person.

I will look in my watched threads, he didn't start it, someone with a question did...

here is one more recent...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/514090/

This message was edited Jun 14, 2005 9:59 PM

Well, couldn't find it my watched threads, probably cause the title was unusual "Last year's problems". But I searched for borer, then narrowed down to the Veggie forum and Horseshoe as "poster", apparently he didn't have to start it, just mention the term "borer" in his post....

so here it is! Let's keep it bumped up this season so people have the answer's at their fingertips...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/371126/

Good idea! Some of the older threads have such wonderful info in them. Here's my arbor with chickenwire fence. DH out there watering the corn, it's about all he can do since he got hurt last summer. Thank God for son-in-laws and teenagers cuz they helped do the fence. All the berry bushes are to the left along the fence line. Hope they eventually make a hedge.
-Juli

And since this was originally a squash thread...here's my row of squash...this is table queen but farther down the row is yellow crookneck and black beauty zuccini. Haven't snuck the pattypan in yet and the pumpkins are on the way far side of the garden where there is more room. They aren't doing as well.
-Juli

Wow, Julie, that all looks GREAT!

What beautiful black soil! I know it isn't that much better just because it's black instead of red, like our soil. Somehow we are conditioned to think black soil is better than red. It's just the iron that makes it red. However, it's the fact that it's clay and filled with rocks that is the real bummer. What I would give for rich loamy rock-less soil......ahh....what a dream.
I read the other thread, about the bores and the coat-hanger treatment, learned about startingt the new roots is also very helpful. Wow, I'm glad I stopped in on your squash thread! Thanks.

Thanks. We bought two truckloads of compost to ammend the soil and we tilled it twice. Our soil here is a mix between rock and sand and clay. It's like cement. The compost was really helpful. The most beautiful rich black soil I've ever seen was in upstate New York visiting relatives. I know, I like the looks of black soil too.
-Juli