Advice on yellow squash ??

[leon richard]

Does the fruit (squash) come from the Female flower ? If so 95% of the flowers I my garden are Male flowers. What’s up with that ?

 

[Chuck]

Does the fruit (squash) come from the Female flower ? If so 95% of the flowers I my garden are Male flowers. What’s up with that ?

That is just the way squash plants grow. For some reason when a plant is young this is what they do. Don't worry, be patient. Soon it will be mostly female flowers and you will be asking why your baby squash are turning brown on the tip and rotting.

 

[YumYum]

you will be asking why your baby squash are turning brown on the tip and rotting.

Well seems I have that problem now on mine. Some of them have white mold growing on the brown tips and some do not. I'm not sure if it is blossom end rot, disease, or maybe insufficient pollination. What is wrong with them @Chuck ?

I'll get a picture of the next ones since I already picked the bad ones and discarded.

 

[Chuck]

Well seems I have that problem now on mine. Some of them have white mold growing on the brown tips and some do not. I'm not sure if it is blossom end rot, disease, or maybe insufficient pollination. What is wrong with them @Chuck ?

I'll get a picture of the next ones since I already picked the bad ones and discarded.

None or insufficient pollination. This year I had no, zero, not a one, honey bees show up. I live way out in the country so I have quite a few non-imported pollinators but even so my squash harvest was small compared to previous years. I had lot of female and male flowers but few squash. I could have hand pollinated them but I don't really like squash all that much anyway. I give away almost all of it.

 

[YumYum]

None or insufficient pollination

Thanks. I just came back from looking so no need for a picture. I have 2 early prolific yellow squash plants with around 33 female flowers and 2 male flowers that look newish so bingo. Looks like they are straightening up now. I've never paid any attention to that little detail but will from now on.

On a side note, my cucumbers are the same thing. Mostly female flowers. No actual cucumbers growing yet.

 

[leon richard]

That is just the way squash plants grow. For some reason when a plant is young this is what they do. Don't worry, be patient. Soon it will be mostly female flowers and you will be asking why your baby squash are turning brown on the tip and rotting.

Sadly that’s not what happen. There were a few female early on but hardly any to none as the plant got older. Are you saying that the reason for brown/ rot tips is due to lack of pollination ? Or chemical imbalance?

 

[Chuck]

Sadly that’s not what happen. There were a few female early on but hardly any to none as the plant got older. Are you saying that the reason for brown/ rot tips is due to lack of pollination ? Or chemical imbalance?

Lack of pollination if you fertilize normally. I suppose that if you over fertilized on one nutrient and underfertilized on another that it might be possible to have some strange chemical imbalance but I have never seen it.

 

[Chuck]

Lack of pollination if you fertilize normally. I suppose that if you over fertilized on one nutrient and underfertilized on another that it might be possible to have some strange chemical imbalance but I have never seen it.

A lack of phosphorus causes poor bloom set. Blossom end rot is caused by chemical imbalance but a lack of flowers has nothing to do with BER. BER in squash affects more mature fruit, not the small baby fruits that fail to start maturing. Having a plant that fails to have female blooms while having numerous male blooms is genetic and not caused by anything you did or did not do. All you can do in this case is be patient.

 

[Chuck]

Thanks. I just came back from looking so no need for a picture. I have 2 early prolific yellow squash plants with around 33 female flowers and 2 male flowers that look newish so bingo. Looks like they are straightening up now. I've never paid any attention to that little detail but will from now on.

On a side note, my cucumbers are the same thing. Mostly female flowers. No actual cucumbers growing yet.

What type of cucumbers? Gynoecious, Parthenocarpic or Monocious.

 

[YumYum]

The

What type of cucumbers? Gynoecious, Parthenocarpic or Monocious.

They are straight eight cucumbers, don't know about those words.

 

[Chuck]

The

They are straight eight cucumbers, don't know about those words.

Straight 8 is a monocious type cucumber meaning that it has both male and female flowers but they open at different times. They open at different intervals assuring that there will be open male and open female flowers at the same time. So, be patient.