Squash Flowers

They are beautiful.Soon they will set fruit.

Just remember to use the male flowers and keep the female ones to develop into squash. The italians like to batter and deep fry zucchini flowers, maybe squash is similar.

il Fri, 07 May 2004 13:05:11 -0500, Mutti Pie ha scritto:

This site has the information that may help you. Just FYI, I grow zucchini specifically for the blossoms. I only like the 8 ball zuck for stuffing = all others are for the blossoms!

Mutti

il Sat, 08 May 2004 13:34:24 GMT, downtime null ha scritto:

Dunno, I think the female ones will have a little squash/zucchini by the stalk end. I haven't grown any for years.

Ah, but you've skipped the crucial pollination step. :-)

Encourage bees, else carry out pollination by hand.

Also remember that squash have male and female blossoms. They are easy to tell apart: male blossoms have a thin stem, female blossoms have a thick or bulgy stem. Only female blossoms develop into fruit (the fat stem part is what grows into the fruit, at least in zucchini and watermelon). The male blossoms will fall off as they age.

~REZ~

Male flowers have a thin stem. Female flowers have a thick or bulgy stem. Once you examine a few of each, it'll become obvious which is which.

Some squash plants only produce male flowers, I don't know why, but I've seen this enough times to know it happens. Frex, I planted three zucchini last year, all from the same seed pack, and only two ever had female blossoms. The third had nothing but male blossoms.

~REZ~

Hi Rez,

three

If I'm not wrong, the main stem will just give male flower. So it can be the third does not develop side stem.

I'm not good in English, but I do hope you understand what I try to say.

Regards, Wong

That's interesting. Anyone else heard of this? Does this mean we should pinch back the main shoot?

And BTW, last year I had almost all female flowers on 3 plants. Can't win for losing :-).

Hmm. I have not ever seen that, that I remember. Maybe it applies to a particular variety or climate?

Gotcha! :)

~REZ~

Hi Rez,

Do you mean your squash does not do in this way, or you do not notice it do in this way?

I do a search at my notes, but do not find it. It can be I read it wrongly, confuse with something else, or the info does not correct.

I will observe it, if I plant squash in the future and still remember this thing.

Regards, Wong

-- Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m

That's an interesting theory. I'll try to take note if I get a chance to see some pumpkins to test it out.

I will certainly check on that, but about pinching the answer is no. I eat as many flowers as I can, all males of course, and if I harvest too many the zucchinis abort due to lack of pollination. Leaving 1 male for every 3 females is about as low as you can go given my pollinating insects population. If you remove all males on your plants you will see what I mean.

Hi simy1,

I'm glad to know the result, since I will not plant squash in the near future.

If I recall correctly, the last time I plant a squash by our fence, I prune the main stem and develop two opposite side stem to climb along our fence. It give more than 60 fruit.

Any problem I do not aware of by doing the pinching?

Regards, Wong

-- Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m

I mean I have not seen a particular branch have only one type of flower.

If they were my notes, no one could read them anyway :)

Yes, I'll be looking next time I plant some, just to see what they do!

Of course they'll probably notice the attention and do the opposite, just to be perverse. :)

~REZ~