I have a couple of squash plants growing really well up a bamboo wigwam
They have produced loads of flowers, and then start to develop smal yellow squash. However, the squash don't grow more than 2-3 inches i diameter, then stop. The earliest ones have now gone a bit brown, so took them off. There are about 10-12 other squash still on the plant Are there too many? They are growing in our own compost in a raise bed. How do i make them grow bigger
-- Penny O
Mine did that and I sprayed them with a calcium spray and it seemed to work. I cant be 100% sure that is what fixed it but its worth a shot.
Hang on, if they are already 2-3in they have been fertilised, you wouldn't get that if you had a pollination problem. The word "squash" means different things to different people but I will take a stab in the dark and say blossom end rot.
Do they turn brownish and go soft and sink in starting at the flower end? Do they then stop growing or fall off the vine? If so then you have BEM caused by a deficiency of Calcium. This can be due to erratic watering or lack of calcium in the soil. Google "blossom end rot" for a zillion hits.
David
David, I don't know what kind of squash you have, but my crooknecks are 3 inches and the scaloppini are silver dollar size before they bloom . Steve
Thanks to you all for your replies. I hadn't even noticed there wer
different flowers on long stems (I'm new to this!), but they are there and artificial insemination has just occured in my garden. I'll keep yo posted on the results
-- Penny O
I have "button squash" which may be called "pattypan" and I have crooknecks. I don't want to break the normal harmony of RGE with a silly tis, tisnt, tis, tisnt, type argument but I have not seen a squash form fruit before the flower.
Sure the flower may continue looking quite healthy for some time after the fruit starts to swell at the base, the flower may even grow after pollination (I haven't measured) but the flower does not appear from the end of the fruit after the fruit is formed. The female flowers do have a bulge at the base before pollination but this is not a fruit.
My understanding is that squash are not parthenocarpic. They are monoecious and if the pollen from a male flower does not reach the female flower the female will wither and die without forming fruit.
I suggest that when your squash are flowering you tag some females while they are just stems with a bulge and watch their development daily, I think you will find the flower comes first.
David
In part yes, it means producing fruit without fertilisation which has the consequence of producing no seeds too. For the squash to have fruit before the flower it would have to be parthenocarpic. See:
David
"David Hare-Scott" expounded:
I think you're misunderstanding what they're saying. My squash also have little fruits beneath the female flower - makes them easily differentiated from the male flowers. True, they aren't fertilized yet, but they are there.
In a constantly chatting democracy there are no facts until you take a vote. I know this because most people think so.
:-)
David
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