so I planted summer squash from seed. they grew and grew into these tremendous, lovely plants. flowered and then nothing.
there are lots of bees around but I tried my hand at pollinating and could only find male blossoms. recently, I found some squash bugs on the leaves (although I haven't seen eggs). this morning, I found some powdery stuff (powdery mildew) on some of the leaves.
the weather here has been really hot (90s every day) and dry (all me and my watering wand!) my cucumbers are doing well and my tomatoes are doing great.
should I just give up on the squash plants and cut them down?
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FieldofFlowers
- Cool Member
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:53 pm
- Location: MN, Zone 4a
put them in soup etc Hi rosiegirl,
I have the same problem as you but with only one plant. There are 3 straight neck and 2 crook neck all in one short row. It is one of the crook necks and is the better looking plant of the bunch. It has not produced one single squash just lots and lots of blooms. All of the others have been producing like crazy. Thanks to them the rest of the family thinks I really know what I'm doing.
I hope it does something soon before the heat puts a halt to the squash production. They don't last too long in the summers here.
Hope all works out well for you.
David
I have the same problem as you but with only one plant. There are 3 straight neck and 2 crook neck all in one short row. It is one of the crook necks and is the better looking plant of the bunch. It has not produced one single squash just lots and lots of blooms. All of the others have been producing like crazy. Thanks to them the rest of the family thinks I really know what I'm doing.
I hope it does something soon before the heat puts a halt to the squash production. They don't last too long in the summers here.
Hope all works out well for you.
David
I have the same problem. Plants looked great and had plenty of male flowers, but no female flowers. Same thing happened to me last year and I got maybe 3 zucchini out of maybe 6 plants. This year so far no zukes. Now there is hardly any flowers left and I am at a total loss as to what I am doing wrong.
I even started a compost bin last year and added compost to the whole garden along with bagged manure I bought at the garden center. I really thought I would do much better this year as the plants looked great. Unfortunately there are only 3 plants left, the rest have died. I cannot see anything that has been eating the plants. Male flowers started showing up the end of May so I would think by now I should have had plenty of female flowers, but I don't. Any help here would be deeply appreciated. They are watered frequently, so maybe too much water, but it has been very hot so I don't think overwatering is the issue.
I even started a compost bin last year and added compost to the whole garden along with bagged manure I bought at the garden center. I really thought I would do much better this year as the plants looked great. Unfortunately there are only 3 plants left, the rest have died. I cannot see anything that has been eating the plants. Male flowers started showing up the end of May so I would think by now I should have had plenty of female flowers, but I don't. Any help here would be deeply appreciated. They are watered frequently, so maybe too much water, but it has been very hot so I don't think overwatering is the issue.
Samething is happening to me. I was getting males and my females were dying after have a 1 -2 inch zuke or cuke appeared. 
I posted here last week and was told to self pollenate them. In the morning when they are open, take one of the males and gently squish the male into the female flower. I did it yesterday morning. I'll see what happens 
.
I posted here last week and was told to self pollenate them. In the morning when they are open, take one of the males and gently squish the male into the female flower. I did it yesterday morning. I'll see what happens .-
FieldofFlowers
- Cool Member
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:53 pm
- Location: MN, Zone 4a
So far, so good with the summer squash. I have 3, maybe 4 zukes growing right now, 3 of the gray kind and one or two of the darker kind. I may have 5 if they all pollinated well. (I wasn't there to pollinate all of them, but there were bees sleeping in the mid-day wilted flowers.) Not to mention I also have one small yellow summer squash. This was after going though a major run of having every single female bud fall off long before opening.
Sadly I'm loosing the battle on my winter squash. The leaves are turning yellow and the svb's are too many. Bud drop is happening constantly. (female flowers.) I may have to give up on the squash altogether. Hobbies, including gardening are supposed to be a way to relax and be freed of stress. Trying to keep the squash alive is anything but fun and is causing too much stress...
Just wondering anyone in Minnesota have success with squash? (short of growing them indoors in a greenhouse or covering them up?) Just seems too much work for a hobby.
Sadly I'm loosing the battle on my winter squash. The leaves are turning yellow and the svb's are too many. Bud drop is happening constantly. (female flowers.) I may have to give up on the squash altogether. Hobbies, including gardening are supposed to be a way to relax and be freed of stress. Trying to keep the squash alive is anything but fun and is causing too much stress...
Just wondering anyone in Minnesota have success with squash? (short of growing them indoors in a greenhouse or covering them up?) Just seems too much work for a hobby.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
The powdery mildew responds well to either a milk solution or a baking soda solution.rosiegirl wrote:thanks! now I guess I have to try to figure out how to treat the fungus!
Type those terms into Search the Forum and find the recipes (sorry, I'd give them, but I'm running out of time, have to go to work!)