Female Squash Blossom Question...

ok, before anyone points out the obvious.. I dont have a pic. BUT, what would cause the tiny squash behind the blossom to shrivel before the blossom has even opened?

Any ideas? we have had quite a bit of rain here, could that be the cause?

They open at like 5am and close around 6 or 7. Finicky females!

Since they don't come out to play very long, it's quite possible they were open the morning before or a couple days before and they didn't get pollinated then. At least that's what I've observed on my plants.

This message was edited Jun 1, 2009 4:07 PM

Agree with Qinx. Blossoms are not open long, so if you are not a morning person you may have missed it. There are several reasons for aborting, the one most discussed is lack of pollination. It takeas an early bee with access to a handy male flower. Sometimes it takes a few days for pollinating insects to discover the plants and make them apart of thier dayly routine. Another reason may be that the plant is not mature enough to reproduce. sometimes they make abortive attemps before they ready. another is that the plant is under some type of stress, weather conditions, competition, nutrients etc. and lastly, the plant may be under attack by fungi, bacteria, virus, insects etc.

great, wonderful. LOL. well, I guess I'll let nature do its thang then, cuz I cant be out there at 6 am waiting with a paintbrush for the girls to open, and trying to figure out what 'stress' it might be under seems almost impossible to me. I'll just hafta keep my fingers crossed that something will happen soon!

The bees know those plants are there, cuz they are interplanted in the flower beds and the flowerbeds are visited by bees on a daily basis.

Do eggplant women behave the same way? Mine have large purple blooms. This is my first time growing eggplants so I have no clue what I should be waiting for.

Eggplants are like tomatoes , self pollinating, so the number one cause of abortion in cucurbits does not apply. They will behave as tomatoes, sometimes drop a few fruit, sometimes a little blossom end rot, but usually come through with flying colors.

Honeybees don't fly in cool weather. It's been many years since I kept bees, but from ancient memory, it has to be above 65F for them to venture from their hives.

Bumble bees will fly at lower temperatures. I don't know about native bees.

If it rained the day your squash opened, it may not have been pollinated.

lol, 'cool' temps are definitely not a concern here as its at least about 80 even on a cloudy/rainy day.

I've gardened or been around gardening all my life. I knew there were male blooms and female blooms but don't have a clue how you tell them a part.

Female blossoms have a slight swelling on the stem beneath
the blossom, like a very teeny zucchini. Male flowers just have
straight stems.

I wonder if it's possible to "harvest" the pollen from male
blossoms into an envelope so it's on hand when the female
blossoms come along? It's usually just a matter of a day.
Anyone know? So far I have all male blossoms and the
females haven't started arriving.

Pollen has a limited time period of viability, so saving it wouldn't be very practical.