Crook Neck Squash

hoogalata · Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:04 pm

Why is my crook neck squash getting too hard before they mature?

jal_ut · Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:36 pm

Welcome to the forum. Please tell us a bit about your garden, soil and weather conditions. Also it helps if we know where you garden. I have no clue without more information, except to say, the plant must be severely stressed somehow. Do you have more than one plant of crookneck, and if so are they all having problems?

hoogalata · Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:28 pm

jal_ut wrote:Welcome to the forum. Please tell us a bit about your garden, soil and weather conditions. Also it helps if we know where you garden. I have no clue without more information, except to say, the plant must be severely stressed somehow. Do you have more than one plant of crookneck, and if so are they all having problems?

Our garden is in South Georgia - about 25 miles west of Savannah. We have had a garden in this spot for several years with squash being one of our favorite plants and this is the only year we have had this problem. It has been very dry here but we are watering it on a regular basis. We have not had the soil tested so the only thing I can say is that it is just top soil native to the locale with a side dressing of fertilizer as needed.

We have several squash plants and most of them are having this problem.

hendi_alex · Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:14 pm

Is there a possibility that they are crossing with some kind of winter squash? Perhaps some stress is simply triggering the hardening of the rind which usually only takes place on larger crookneck fruit. I would think that as long as the fruit are filling out rapidly, going from bloom to harvest size in two or three days that they would remain tender.

hoogalata · Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:42 pm

Nope, no winter squash around. Most of them have the rinds hardening while the bloom is still on the squash. Dangdest thing I ever saw.

hendi_alex · Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:04 pm

One more wild guess. Usually when pollination doesn't take place the blossom end rots. But with your hot, dry weather, I'm wondering if perhaps pollination is the problem. But because the weather is so dry, that the fruit is turning leathery rather than rotting.