Most definitely, having them only 3 inches apart will affect the size and productivity of the plant. Mine are about 18 inches and producing very well, but at least 2 feet apart would have been better.

As for pollinating a green with a yellow and vice versa, there is no problem when it comes to the production of fruit. What it does affect is the seeds the zucchini produce and if these seeds are dried and sown, the resulting fruit would be a hybrid of the two original zucchini.

By they way, zucchini should be picked when they are no bigger than 7 or 8 inches for optimum flavor. If I miss one and it gets bigger, I treat it as a squash.

dianasan has answered the questions, but I had comment to on this:

I have 2 each of the green zukes (empires i think??) and the yellow straight necks right next to each other (i'm talking less than 3 inches apart)...

...because it just boggles my mind.

I'm not a master gardener (whatever the hell that is, anyway) but I can read a seed packet, and there's often some quite useful information on there, like recommended plant spacing, for example.

Sure, the packet just gives general guidelines, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't say anything remotely like "plant three inches apart". I'm prepared to bet that even Square Foot Gardening guidelines for zucchini recommend a substantially greater spacing.

Not to pick on ladybugsmom, because there have been many other posts about ridiculously crowded gardens. But what gives? The information is readily available, why don't people use it? I just don't get it!

Thanks, just had to get that off my chest...

- can having them that close together effect production?
Yes. I planted mine close expecting to lose most to the slugs. When slugs did not do them in, I pulled some of them. It's common for us with limited space to plant things too close sometimes. I know it's unthinkable to kill something we work so hard to grow, but they will compete for nutrition. Also letting the fruit grow too big and go to seeds may also affect future productions.

- can i hand pollinate the yellows with the green zukes?
Yes.

- will they cross pollinate on their own, and will that effect the production/fruit?
Yes. Usually not. I saw a few wired looking early fruits, but those're probably accident.

well too funny,,,i usually plant two zukes within 3 inches of each other but i leave 2 ft between the next group and 3 ft would be better as they can really get huge once those hot summer days arrive....dianasan you will probably find that cutting a few plants off will end up giving you more and better fruit,,,hey the summer is still young,,,,make sure they have enough fertilizer, give them water but keep the folage dry and you will have enough to take to the food bank,,,,my best producer so far has been called "payroll" tons of beautiful fruit....zuke on dianasan best regards from gregg on the wet coast

don't you all just LOVE newbies, lol!!

now on with my update:

a few disclaimers -
first, they're planted about 4 inches apart (i know, i know - still too close, lol!), but in rows that are about 20+ inches apart. second, my 8 year old daughter (ladybug) and hubby planted them for me because i was sick.

@ dianasan - thanks so much for the info. i had been wondering what the deal was, but i'm realizing now that we've been having funky weird weather in my area (too warm too soon, unusually cold - i almost turned my heater on the other day!). and btw, i just picked 3 nice, big, fat, deep green zukes the smallest is 6.5 inches and the biggest is 8.25 - wooohoo!!!! (thank you hand pollination and 'davissue'!)

@ bluebirdie & @ the farmguy - many thanks to you too. i asked about the cross pollination because i was starting to feel a little desperate since my boy/girl flowers weren't coming up at the same time, and according to basic anatomy... lol!

so i pulled one earlier because it just wasn't doing anything. i only kept it this long because my ladybug REALLY liked that one for some reason, but i knew it wasn't going to do anything. the other three are going like gangbusters though in terms of health and growth. again, i get/have gotten, tons of little starters, they just aren't making it to the finish line, and i thought that in addition to the pollination issue, that just maybe it could have something to do with being that close (BECAUSE I HAVE DONE MY RESEARCH AND I DO KNOW THAT THEY SHOULDN'T BE THAT CLOSE). by the time i began to come out of my chemo funk, ladybug and hubby were quite proud of themselves for getting them in the ground, AND keeping them alive for me.

sorry for being so long. thanks again, now i'm going to go oogle at my zuke 'bounty'...!

You go girl!
I lurk because it's interesting to find the answers from those that really want to share. Last couple of dumbie questions got the same kind of responses you got from ausbirch. climate this year has really been weird on the west coast, too late to plant because too wet, green house starts still languishing in the ground,....
anyway, my point, and my direction this year, wait and see. maybe the corn will actually have time, maybe we'll get a good tomato and pepper harvest.
glad to hear hubby and ladybug have the "itch", it's hard to recover from that! best wishes on your recovery, the garden's a great place to do that,....

Actually, aside from knowing that zucchini need a lot of room to grow, the spacing on the packages can be really deceiving. They usually talk about planting several seeds in a hill, and then thinning them to a couple of plants per hill. Well, how big is a hill? When I think of a hill, I think of a mound of dirt, which, ok, I guess would have been called a mound if that's what they meant, but not coming from any sort of farming or growing background of any sort - I haven't a clue what the eff a hill is. However big a hill is supposed to be, it sounds as though the plants can be rather closely spaced within one, as long as the rows are well-spaced (and I thought those row spacing guidelines were only for people who did row gardening anyway, so that they'd have room to drive tractors and stuff through them, or walk through, or what have you...).

Those of us who are newer to gardening try new things, especially those of us with limited space. Cramming things in is always one of those experiments. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's all in the name of learning. Hell, I planted 2 zukes that close together last year, and ended up with at least a passable harvest, though far from the overflowing bounty I expected. This year, I planted them 2' apart, and I'm getting less than I did last year! If I hadn't tried it, I never would have known that it was possible to crowd them that much and still get something out of them.

I really don't understand the intolerance of "newbie" questions on this forum. I too am a newbie and I have had my share of "stupid" questions. But haven't we all started out new? I doubt the negative people were born with all the knowledge of gardening. I have to agree with the seed packet discrepancies. I planted Kohlrabi this year and I followed the seed packet to a T. My plants never bulbed. Come to find out that they won't bulb if the leaves of adjoining plants are touching. Some people plant them a good foot away from one another. But the seed packet doesn't tell you that. The only way I learned that was talking to people here. Ladybugsmom, I wish you a speedy recovery. It is very obvious you have a wonderful support system with your husband and daughter. I can only imagine how proud ladybug was with planting the zukes for you. That alone is worth more than any size harvest. Good luck! I hope you get atleast one zuke that the three of you can share.

As another beginning vegetable gardener, I dont mind and even enjoy some of the "drier" comments. Luckily I started reading up in this forum BEFORE I planted this spring. - still.......

My zukes are too close together too - I think there are about 9 plants in a raised bed that is 10 feet long. The plants are huge, but I am getting alot of blossom end rot, which from what I read here, is due to lack of pollination. I think that it is so crowded in there (and the plants are set down in the wooden frames 6-8 inches), that the bees simply don't find the flowers.

When I harvested last night I cut out about a third of the leaves on every plant to give them more air and give the bees access. Hopefully the open stems wont just attract evil bugs, but so far I haven't had any insect damage on the zukes, so fingers are crossed

There is a saying: "The only dumb question is the one not asked." Everyone starts out some time and we all learn at a different pace.

Yes, the two varieties will cross on their own. But no, as I believe was already mentioned, that will not affect the fruit. Also, even though the seed will not be pure, it should produce usable summer squash.

By the way, "hill," in garden terminology, doesn't necessarily mean a "raised heap of soil." "To plant in hills" means to plant a couple seeds (usually 2-3) close together, move on, and plant another similar grouping. Depending on the squash variety hills are separated by anywhere from 4 to 8'. How much space to use between different varieties of summer squash is often learned by experience, as there are varieties which are pretty compact, and others that, well... aren't at all ;) I have grown a summer squash which sent out runners about 10'!

George
Tahlequah, OK

Hi, ladybugsmom. You're so lucky to have your 8 year-old daughter help with your gardening. I wish my (grown-up) daughter would show a tiny bit of interest in my garden. All my very best wishes to you!

Hey, Gregg (farmguy). So many cultivars, so little garden space, LOL! Best regards to you too!

Thank you Macmex and Spaghetina, now I know what a "hill" is.

Thefarmguy said "...you will probably find that cutting a few plants off will end up giving you more and better fruit,,,hey the summer is still young..."

To me, it is important to "cut" instead of to "pull" when overcrowding. The exception is when they are very young and you're trying to save both plants. Otherwise, it's safer to cut off the extra - always painful for me to do.

wow, thanks so much for the feedback everyone, i really appreciate that, and this forum (as evidenced my all my requests for 'help!', lol!).

well, as far as the good wishes for my health - i thank you so very much. i've had a little set back and head back to chemo starting monday (yay - NOT!) so i am a bit anxious to get as much info as i can to seem like i know a little something to my poor dear hubby so he'll have enough courage to get out there and take care of my garden while i'm wrapped around the toilet, lol!

yes, i'm a lucky gal indeed.

since i've started gardening, i've taken a gander at the seed packets and yes, they're a little hard for me to decipher, i sheepishly admit. i gave up after my first disaster at thinning. i thinned the poor things to nothing! so i didn't even bother to thin the basil and it's doing just fine.

i've noticed the occasional mean spiritedness on this forum and well, i just guess they've had or are having a bad day. honestly, i've found that there's more wonderfully generous folks here than not, and i'm thankful for that. i don't mind the occasional 'dry wit' comments too, but some are a bit, well, mean. and that's sad, because life's just too short, and truly sweet for that.

i hope you all have a wonderfully sweet day! be well :)

angela
(ladybugs momm!)

Well, I'm a complete newbie. I have found the info on seed packets to be mostly irelevant pertaining to spacing when gardening in raised beds or containers. The ability to control moisture and have such rich soil somewhat offsets crowding IMO.
That being said my zuchinni has yet to produce a single zuke. My squash produce pitiful little nothings that end up shriveling away. I've pulled about 4 squash from two fairly crowded "hills".
But I'm learning and I'm sure I have asked some newbie questions that seem trivial to those with more experience.

laeybugsmom, I'll say a prayer for you and hope your treatment goes well.

One last thing, does anyone know where I can get some macaroni seeds? I cannot find any locally and the seed catalogs do not seem to have any listed.

Just plant some orzo and you can harvest macaroni, ziti, or manicotti, depending on how long you let the fruits ripen.

LOL! Thanks, I'll have to find some "orzo". ;-)

The most wonderful thing about gardening is that you learn more every year, and every new growing season is a chance to try again for a better result.

The weather may go bad, the seeds may not sprout, diseases and insects attack. Even sometimes your own ignorance may get in the way. But it's the miracle of nature: you can always start again.

And sometimes you'll have those seasons when plants grow beautifully and harvests are abundant. Then you get start again anyway :).

We're actually supposed to READ the seed packets???? Yikes, news to me ;-)

ladybugsmom, I have tried squash for 2 years and the boys and girls have not appeared at the same time. I think I have harvested 5 squash in 2 years, and I can't even tell you how many plants I have grown. I kept hoping they would synch up (the males and females), but if they were going to, the squash vine borers beat them to it.

So I decided to give up squash. I love tomatoes and am focusing on those as well as peppers and cukes. I am lucky to have a farmer's market 8 miles from my house, so if I need "homegrown" squash, I can easily get it.

All the best to you...

That's so odd.. grew gold rush and black beauty zucchini this year (first time growing them for us) and can't keep the fruits off the plant (though we're mostly hand pollinating as bees are in short supply around here this year). At any given time there are 5-10 buds/flowers of mixed sex on each of 3 plants. Lucky I guess? They're in self watering containers with peat/perlite/bark.

@ ditnc - huh-larry-us!! lol!! i feel the same way actually. my cousin in georgia has the exact same brand and type (carrots) of seed packet he got from his local nursery, the same ones i have. and guess what? the packets say the exact same thing - we live almost 3000 miles apart!!

well, i'm going to keep trying, and growing what i like/want til i can't any longer. i just LOVE it. i love being out there. there was 'nothing to do' in the garden this morning (well, there's ALWAYS something to do) so i just fiddled around, snipping leaves, dead heading, pinching back, lol!

hope you all have a great weekend

angela :)