No female flowers on my zucchini or squash???

prettymess wrote;"I have male flowers now, should I pull some off to save for when my female flowers finally bloom or will there be both blooming at once?"

Won't work :(. Pollen deteriorates very quickly. You shouldn;t have any problem, I've never had female only flowers, there have always been at least a couple of males around.

Thanks for the idea, Sky. I will look into row covers since I have decided this will most likely be the best solution for me. You see, I cannot tend my plants during the day because of work and the SVB moth is extremely busy here the entire time. I can pick the eggs from my plants when I get home but my gosh there are a lot of eggs and I invariably miss one or two, but that's all it takes to do-in your plant!

For me, covering my squash plants is the best defense against SVB. I already hand-pollinate because there just aren't many bees around, so I'm cool with it.

behillman, I planted Longneck, crookneck and zuccini. I wanted Yellow pattypan but could not find any. I have one butternut and seeds of winter squash that I will plant this week.. I did plant a few white patty's last year, they did great.

I planted running string or most people say green beans down the west side of my bed last year to shade the evening sun off my squash. It worked really well and the squash never quit producing. Just cut back in producing as the season extented. We finally just got tired of squash, had no room to put up more and couldn't give it away, so I finally just pulled it up. I planted white patty pan back that fall but didn't care for it. I'm using the same method this year to keep the sun off and also planted some zukes as well. I guess I'll find out if last year was a fluke or the shade helped.

thanks catmad! I can see two female flower buds right now, they are still green but hopefully will bloom soon, I am checking every day.

Okay, I'm the original poster. And it happened again. Couple of months ago I ordered a new kind of squash - "e-z grow" or something like that, and I got 2 nice plants, with lots of male flowers, and not a stinking female flower anywhere.

I know what to look for; my best friend has a beautiful yellow squash plant in her backyard, and showed them to me.

Nothin', nada, zip.
My opinion??? *thbpthbpthbpthbpthbp* (closest I'll get to raspberries for a while)

Being in Houston, right now my vegetables are all but dead. It's been in the high 90s for about 2 weeks, and I'm itching for fall weather already.

Sheesh.

I'm finally eating yellow squash. I had started out with all male flowers. This went on for about 2 weeks, so I started watering every day, & added a teaspoon of Miracle-gro next to each Squash plant. All of a sudden, like 3 days later, I start getting female flowers & now I have squash. I did the same thing with my Okra, & now I am eating okra. I guess the combination of extra water & miracle-grow did the trick.

Or maybe Tincture of Time :)

Well, I do water about every day, since they're in containers. But I'll try the Miracle Gro. Thanks.

Tincture of Time is what I tried last time, and they died without any female flowers. But -- I take your point... sometimes I'm impatient.

maybe you have too much nitrogen in your soil? I think you can test the PH levels of the soil, but really high nitrogen decreases yield! It also makes the leaves really dark and susceptible to insect attacks and disease. this is just a guess. Hopefully you get some squash soon!

Just a note about eating the Male Flowers:

My mom has done this (similar) since I was a little boy, and I believe my Grandmother made them for her when she was a little girl.

She uses a basic fritter batter, coats them, and pan/deep fries them. You want them to be a VERY light brown. Over cooking them (golden or darker) takes away the flavor of the flower. Mangiamo!

NOTE: Once they are fried, they sorta look like fried Mice. Or at least what one would think a fried mouse would look like. =)

Son Of green thumb,

You are making my water water just thinking about fried squash flowers.They sell them in Europe meaning the flowers and had eaten them there. You can stuff them too and then fry with batter. I like frying the male because i prefer them than when they are mature. You have to gather them early in the morning because they wilt fast when the sun is out and inspect them for bees.

I do not plant any zuchinni /squash because I have a very limited space. My husband has to have ample s[ace at the backyard to do some golf swings. LOL!!!

Narragnstt is a beautiful place, my sister lives in East greenwich RI and we buy lobste and clams. in your place. Belle