I dunno, I have to say I'm all for forcing babies on adolescent zucchinis. I mean, if she pollinated successfully she could be picking zukes in less than a week. I picked my first 'Zucchini Gray' fruit recently, and was counting the minutes until it was big enough. Two weeks is a looong time to wait if you are impatient. Of course, in a month I won't be able to stomach the thought of eating another summer squash, but right now it's heaven.

Hi kimmsr, I would say my soil does not hold moisture particularly well, even though we do amend it and add organic matter every year. On the other hand, it does appear to drain well. A 10"x10" hole I dug two days ago and filled with water was drained in less than 10 minutes.The native soil is clay. We live in a very dry climate east of San Diego, where we are lucky to see rain once during the summer. It did happen to rain just a few days ago, and I can already see that my entire garden loved it, including the squash, which as of today show 85% new growth. Yay! As for the pH, I have no idea. I thnk it's time to invest in a soil test kit. In addition to ants, I see some roly-polies, some white flies, an ocassional pincher bug, and some weird tiny blackish bugs that emerged from the base of one of my Black Krim tomato plants that I pulled yesterday as it was doing poorly. I know I will have to spray all the plants with Neem at the bases now as I am sure these little bugs must have moved on to all my healthy tomato roots. I also saw them on my peach tree. My garden also shows evidence of visiting spiders. I really do not like to spray my garden with anything, but Neem has been quite gentle and I do want a harvest! Yesterday I got brave and chopped off two long yellow stems from one of the squash plants. It meant sacrificing some new growth and one new baby squash but this is still a bit of an experiment, after all. I may trim again today and bury the end of one stem in the soil just to see what happens. The older squash is sort of a funny color, with yellowish tinge in spots instead of the overall nice deep tan color I am used to. I hope it still tastes good! :)

I had this problem all the time. I could never find an answer either. It certainly didn't seem a lack of pollination. I'd get those early abortions, where the female flower didn't even get to bloom before yellowing and dropping off. I'd also get the ones that yellowed and dropped off after pollination. And I know for fact they were pollenated because I even took the anthers of a male flower (and sometimes even from a different plant of the same species), broke them off and forced (aka raped) the flower by placing a fully pollen loaded anther on the stigmas. I even tried this in the morning. But still....a good number of them aborted. Without any references to turn to, I came to some very likely theories (which I believe very possible anyway) 1. The plant isn't big enough. I may think it is, but the plant may not be ready. 2. Not enough total male flowers have opened in the plant's lifespan? (like the plant keeps count???) 3. Not enough light??? I had significantly more squash abortions in a part shade/part sun spot in my grandma's yard than the last year when I planted in a sunnier spot. - Even still I had a great number of abortions earlier in the season until the vine got gigantic. (point #1 may be in effect) 5. Plant's own health? I noticed later in the year as the squash vine borers took ahold of the plant, there were a lot more abortions. Especially true with zucchini. The plant might look healthy, but if that one branch had a larva feeding inside it, then the first sign of death would be a lack of blooming female flowers and even more rare ones that produced squash. 6. The weather. More specifically night time temps. It may be the night time low temps have to be under a certain temp. I noticed no matter how early I planted or how large a vine I got to grow indoors before planting,there was always a dearth of mature squash (specially winter varieties) in mid July. This would be true even with the one spring in 2011 when I got a squash growing in June. It almost never failed. As long as the lows didn't drop into the lower 70's for summer squash or 60's for winter types, I could forget having any new female flowers for that week. I'm guessing lows of 80's kills the pollen or the flowers??? Idk. But as soon as the low temps cooled down in the 70 or 60 range, then I'd get a successful pollenated and developing squash. Right now I believe out of those points #1 and #6 are the most likely. I just wish I could find more scientific evidence to back up my theory.

Lots of us tried this a few years back - and it was really good. it was those darn cookies that created a stir - where to get them - lol. Butternut Squash Lasagna Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis Posted by LoriJean Recipe Summary Difficulty: Medium Prep Time: 30 minutes Inactive Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour 25 minutes Yield: 8 to 10 servings User Rating: Cook's Note: The no-boil lasagna noodles can be substituted with fresh spinach lasagna sheets. Look for fresh lasagna sheets in the refrigerated section of specialty markets. 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 (1 1/2 to 2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup water 3 amaretti cookies, crumbled 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 1/2 cups whole milk Pinch nutmeg 3/4 cup (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves 12 no-boil lasagna noodles 2 1/2 cups shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese 1/3 cup grated Parmesan Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the squash and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the water into the skillet and then cover and simmer over medium heat until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly and then transfer the squash to a food processor. Add the amaretti cookies and blend until smooth. Season the squash puree, to taste, with more salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a heavy medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the nutmeg. Cool slightly. Transfer half of the sauce to a blender*. Add the basil and blend until smooth. Return the basil sauce to the sauce in the pan and stir to blend. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Drizzle 1/2 cup of sauce over the noodles. Repeat layering 3 more times. Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake the lasagna for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the lasagna. Continue baking uncovered until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 15 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving. *When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.