A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Squash Issues

I'm in Pensacola, FL, in zone 8. I started all my veggie seeds indoors and planted them outside in early March. My three zucchini plants have gotten huge, but in almost 3 months, I have picked no zucchini. They'll get to about 2 inches long, and then they'll shrivel up. Finally, it looks like one of my plants is growing a successful one, but the other two don't seem to be producing any female flowers.

Then, there's my yellow squash. 4 of those have been in the ground since March, and only one of the plants is big and healthy looking. The others are all very small, about one square foot in size each, and all except one don't produce any squash. The one that does produce squash gives me hard, yellow-gold colored fruit. It's only given me two, and we can't eat them.

This was my first time doing my own garden, and I know I didn't do everything right. I would appreciate, however, if one or all of you could tell me what it seems the problem is. I'm going to do things a lot different next year!

It sounds like the plant's flowers are not getting pollinated well. Squash, and most curcurbits, produce both male and female flowers. Pollen from the male flowers needs to be transferred to the stamen of the female flower for pollination to occur. This is usually done by bees, but you can do it yourself if there is not a large population of bees near your garden with a Q-tip or by removing a male flower, peeling off the petals and swabbing the female flowers with it which is what I do.

Do you fertilize? How's your soil? Are your other crops doing well? Can you post pictures of the plants?

Sun / Shade / PH / organic matter
ranger