Squash - flowering but no fruit?

[JR05]

I have a few summer-squash plants that are doing really well (looking and flowering) but I only have 1 squash growing. The rest of the flowers just seem to fall off and no vegetables! Am I doing something wrong, or is this normal?

Thanks,
JR

[shepj73]

sounds like a polination issue to me. Have you tried to manually polinate those bugers?

[JR05]

I haven't tried hand pollinating them. I will look around online and see if I can find some instructions. My tomatoes are going crazy though but I have a feeling those pollinate differently.

[garden5]

You could have either poor pollination or no female flowers. With squash, you have male flowers (which have a long, skinny stem behind them) and female flowers (which have a small squash behind them.

When you see them both open in the morning, take a male flower and gently smoosh it into the female one, being careful not to destroy the parts in the center of the flowers.

Of course, this only works if you have females to pollinate. If you don't, just give it time. In many instances, the plant will produce all males before the females.

[JR05]

well there is my problem. All the flowers that are dying off don't have squash behind them. The one that did so far (first on any of the plants) is growing just fine...

I will give it a little time, I am just anxious for some delicious squash. If I have issues after I get some females, I will hand pollinate.

[cherishedtiger]

I thought something was terribly wrong with my squash when two of my flowers fell off! Thanks for posting the question... lets hope we get some actual squash out of our plants! Crossing my fingers for both you and I!

[JR05]

haha, glad I could help, cherishedtiger.

I thought it was a silly question, but being my first year gardening I have lots of those. Keep us updated on your squash results and I will do the same. I only have one now but it is looking great!

[jmoore]

This is a funny thread. Last year was my first garden and my first thread on this forum was something like "Help! I've only got female flowers on my cukes".

So the problem must be widespread.

Let them go and they should take off. If not, then a little pollination help with a qtip should be beneficial.

[shaefins]

I have a TON of male flowers, but only a handful of females. One opened Saturday morning, so I hand pollinated it w/ a paintbrush. I'm telling you, that thing is just about ready to pick today, just 3 days later! They've been so much fun to watch grow.