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Why so many male blossoms on my squash plant, females ?

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:29 am
by hardland
I put up a post last week about hand polinating female squash blossoms. Got some great input, thank you all. I tried it, hopefully it will work. The female blossoms wilted after I polinated them, but the fruit behind it seems to have some vigor. My question: of the 15 or so blossoms so far, only three have been female the rest are male, with no fruit behind the blossom. Is this normal as a ratio ??

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:03 am
by rainbowgardener
Often seems to go that way early in the season. Later on you should have a more even ratio.

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:01 am
by garden5
Just give it some time. I've heard of people having absolutely no female flowers at all, but after the growing season continued on, they just kept coming. Gardening really requires patience, sometimes.

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:11 pm
by TZ -OH6
Plants can parent more children by getting pollen to other plants. Once they themsleves get "pregnant" a lot of their energy goes into fruit growth, so it is advantagious for a small/young plant to put out male flowers before female flowers.