| Author | Content |
janet214
Grass Valley, CA (Zone 9a)
July 13, 2012 11:01 AM Post #9203923
| My zucchini and crook neck squash have tons of male flowers and hardly any female fruit flowers...what the heck is that about? From what I was told it would have been the other way around. |
janet214
Grass Valley, CA (Zone 9a)
July 13, 2012 1:30 PM Post #9204067
| As for this one: per my conversation with the local nursery. It is common to get a ton of male flowers first and the the females will start coming in prolifically. But since they are a hungry plant it is a good idea to fertilize them with the masters bloom liquid as well every two weeks. |
HoneybeeNC
Charlotte, NC (Zone 7b)
July 14, 2012 7:58 AM Post #9204832
| janet214 - all those male blossoms will attract bees. This is necessary so bees are present when the female blooms appear. The blossoms are only open for a short period each day. |
sweetie77
Kankakee, IL (Zone 5b)
July 14, 2012 9:02 AM Post #9204891
| How do you know they are male? Is it the same for melons? |
HoneybeeNC
Charlotte, NC (Zone 7b)
July 14, 2012 9:36 AM Post #9204930
| sweetie77 - Yes. If you know how to tell females from males on melons, you can use the same info for squash and cucumbers.
Hmm... I just re-read your questions. Perhaps you are trying to tell which are male and which are female blossoms on both squash and melons?
In case you are; (and for those reading this who would like to know.)
A female squash, melon, or cucumber flower has a little bump behind it. The male flowers just have a plain stalk. You could think of the female flowers as looking a "little pregnant." 
If you don't have bees, you can pollinate these flowers by using a make-up brush to transfer the pollen from male to female blooms. I've never done this, although I have used this method to pollinate day lilies.
Sometimes the young fruit turn yellow, die, and fall off. I don't know why this happens, but assume it's caused by lack of pollination, wet weather, too humid, to dry, or too something! |
janet214
Grass Valley, CA (Zone 9a)
July 14, 2012 10:50 AM Post #9205009
| HoneybeeNC is right about the difference on the flowers...I just wanted to add that I used a q-tip to pollenate my squash and it worked well. The bee's seemed to be busy with ornamental flowers and I had to help them out lol. |
sweetie77
Kankakee, IL (Zone 5b)
July 14, 2012 10:59 AM Post #9205020
| Cool! I'm gonna go look for the difference now! |
misjan
Ottawa, IL
July 17, 2012 6:12 AM Post #9208417
| I have read about Sultan zucchini seeds. These seeds are supposed to be self pollinating. I have looked every where and can't find these seeds. Does anyone know where I can find/order them? Thanks so much. |
drthor
Irving, TX (Zone 8a)
July 17, 2012 7:11 AM Post #9208552
| The Sultan I know is a cucumber :http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7749-sultan-f1.aspx
Partenon is a parthenocarpic zucchini (=it will set fruit without being pollinated). i have trued and last year did very well before the SVB came to visit !
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8311-partenon-f1-og.aspx
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misjan
Ottawa, IL
July 18, 2012 3:26 AM Post #9209756
| drthor-thanks so much. I will order some of these seeds and give them a try. |
