Please don't tell me I knocked off a potential supper.
Here are some more pictures.
A squash blossom!
I'm going to have to take photography classes. (Sigh.)
Here's another. This is before I knocked off the guy on the right.
In the second of these pictures, there's a young bud pointing off to the right. I don't know if you can see it very well, but this bud looks different from the others. It looks like a dunce cap on a bowling ball. There's definitely a swelling just below the petals-to-be.
Has a lady come calling at last?
In the first photo, there appears to be a female blossom starting to form in the upper right center. It looks like a tiny zuke below the green part that will become blossom.
It just be the stem of a male blossom that I am mistaking for the zuke shape, but I'm praying for your plant.
My zukes had only male blossoms for the first two weeks.
Yup, that's the one I was referring to. Looks like the blossom swallowed a bowling ball. Since it's round, does that mean that one of the 8 Ball zukes might have made it? I planted them first, and critters kept chomping off the seedlings or digging for the seeds. After that I planted Black Eel, a cylindrical zuke.
I think you'll just have to watch and see what develops. Hopefully it is an 8 ball female blossom so the you will be able to harvest some.
White_Hydrangea, There is a good photo of a female Eight Ball blossom by Bassetmom here http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/79531/
A bowling ball in a dunce cap! Thanks, Farmerdill.
Zucchini, Zucchini! (Doing the zucchini dance.)
Not doing the zucchini dance any more. :-( The bowling ball in the dunce cap shriveled up and died without opening.
There are plenty of blooms, and they are ALL male.
Maybe the ladies feel outnumbered?
Harvest some of those male blossoms when they are open during the day.
Soak them briefly in cold water, then stuff'em, fry or bake'em and enjoy an tasty bite from your zucchini! There's more than one way to enjoy that plant.
Still no squashes, although I've plenty of blossoms.
Is it possible that I simply have a dozen male plants?
I have never seen such a thing. Without reading the whole thread again - where are the seeds from and what kind of squash? Maybe Dusty is eating all the female ones...LOL
I doubt if Dusty has gotten to the point where he can unlock doors, although I'm sure he'd like to.
I planted 8-Ball zucchini initially, but critters kept digging up the seeds or chomping the seedlings. I ran out of 8-Ball and started planting Black Eel zucchini. Most are probably Black Eel, but there might well be some 8-Ball that made it.
They're quite healthy, just no female blossoms, and NO SQUASH!
Time to get out the goat cheese and chives and stuff those boys so that you at least get a good meal from your zuke plant!
http://www.strauscom.com/farmfresh/ffsblos.html
http://food.cookinglight.com/cooking/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1065505
Next year, I plant LOTS more zucchini.
Can you start them earlier and transplant them? That would probably help.
We planted our late this year and had to eat a lot of male blossoms until the ladies finally showed up.
Oh, yes. I wasn't able to move in until almost May this year. Next year I can start as early as I want.
And what I'm hoping to do is set up something in the garage so I can start seeds earlier inside.
It's been almost a month since the first squash blossom, and no zucchini. I guess I can give up now.
I figure that, next year, if I plant at least 15-20 zucchini plants, I should statistically get at least a couple zucchini.
Zucchini bread, zucchini lasagna, stuffed zucchini, zucchini in stew.... Sigh.
Still no ladies on the plant? or are they giving up before producing fruit?
I get lots of blossoms, then they wilt, turn brown, and fall off. And no, none of them looked like lady flowers.
I'm raising Brokeback zucchini.
That's too bad. They grow so quickly once pollinated that I thought for sure you'd get some this season. Have you gone out and had a heart to heart talk with them?
Your neighbors might think you kooky, but it certainly couldn't hurt!
:-)
I'm sure there was no problem with their being pollinated. I saw bees at them, so I know they found them.
The weather has turned cool today. Fall is in the air. Maybe that would turn the trick? How the heck do these squash think they're going to continue the family line if they don't produce any fruit?
Thanks for those links garden. I have volunteer squash of some kind growing in my flower bed, I hope they are pumpkins, but we'll see. I'm going to try eating some of those blossoms. Surely don't need more than 2 pumpkins!
Sorry to hear about your zuchini plants white. Maybe your soil has a deficiency? I bought a soil kit from amazon.com and found that my soil has absolutely no nitrogen. Once I figured out it was deficient in nitrogen and magnesium, I could fertilize to balance out and finally get some nice peppers!
STILL no ladies!
Well, they're either intimidated by the crowd of guys, or there could be a deficiency.
Have you had your soil tested or do one of the home test kits?
I did one of the home tests, but I have to interpret the results. This is the oddest thing. You'd think, statistically, there'd be at least a couple female blossoms. Next year, I'm going to try some different varieties.
Planting them sooner will help too. We had male blossoms only for the first few weeks before the ladies appeared.
Edited for spelling
This message was edited Sep 8, 2006 10:23 AM
I am wondering if the plants aren't getting enough light or food. For a plant to form fruit it has to be able to nourish more than just the fruit. The first year use a patch of soil for gardening, at least in my experience, may not be so great. Compost it for more than one year and you will find that it gets more productive each year.
Also, squash **love** organic matter. I planted squash on my vacant lot for 2 years, composting each year before they started to bear much. Oddly enough, the tomatoes did well a year or two before the squash.
So just keep adding compost to your soil and I believe you will eventually get zucchini. The plants looked fine to me. How large are they?
I didn't want to jinx myself. I wanted to wait until I was sure.
But--tada! A pregnant blossom!
And here's the guy who did it.
To make sure, though, I intervened with a Q-tip. It's been overcast and rainy today. Not many bees about.
And here's my garden, as of today.
The part to the right I've finally cleared off and weeded. That's where I'll put my garlic when I get it.
Looking good! Congratulations on the squash IVF!
Congratulations on your squash-to-be. I suspect that next year, after you have improved your soil again, the zucchinis will grow better. I don't usually do so well when I plant in a new patch of soil, either. A soil test might help suggest what to add, but I have never heard of having too much organic matter in the Rockies -- or anywhere else for that matter.
It is generally true in organic gardening that every year both you and your soil get better.
That's what I figure. Every year I'll work in more and more. Now for some of the patches I'm clearing, I intend to work in compost, manure, and garden soil this fall, and then plant in the spring (when I'll work some more in). When I first started, the soil was like moondust. I thank the earthworms for helping me.