If I accidentally knock off a female squash flower

[lala01]

while watering, will the squash still continue to grow or be permanently stunted? It was about 1-2 days after the blossom opened.

Thanks!

[applestar]

Are you asking about the fruit or the vine?

If fruit and the blossom part fell off but the ovary has remained then maybe it WAS pollinated and fruit will continue to grow. If the entire thing came off including the ovary, then it wasn't pollinated. You may want to think about hand pollinating if local insects are not adequately taking care of things.

If you are asking about the vine. It won't have felt a thing.

[lala01]

I am actually growing a bush variety of summer squash. And I have a few small yellow squashes that I knocked the flowers off the end of with the hose. It's my first time growing squash and I didn't realize they were so delicate. The yellow squashes themselves are still on the plant, just missing their flowers. Tomorrow I can take some photos if my question is still unclear (I'm a beginner gardener so I don't really know what I'm doing)

[bri80]

If the immature fruit were already pollinated, they'll be fine. The flowers drop off naturally after a few days. If they weren't pollinated, they'll drop off too, and like applestar said, you should consider hand-pollinating.

[lala01]

Thank you!

I did plan on hand-pollinating and actually went outside with a Q-Tip on the first day I had open flowers, but when I got out there I saw bees inside two of them. So it seems like I have lots of pollinators in the area, thankfully.

[jal_ut]

Hey if you have bees working the flowers you are good to go. I was just going to suggest that you always plant at least 2 squash plants. 3 or more is even better. Have fun!

[Gary350]

Male & Female flowers? I went out and took a look at my squash they have gone crazy this past week making flowers. Here is a pic of 2 flowers. I bet I can guess which one is male and which is female. It seems to me you need both to have babies. This is the first time I ever examined my flowers up close. I notice my plants have about a dozen little baby zuchinni about 1" diameter 4" long with a wilted yellow flower on the end of each squash. I opened all the wilted flowers on the end of each squash they all have female flowers. Do all plants have male and female flowers too, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, beans?