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Vegetable Gardening

ALL zucchini going female first -- what makes that happen??

10 years ago

So all week I've been running around to neighbors, whose zucchini are obediently blooming male first, asking for male flowers, and hand pollinating the female flowers on all of my zucchini -- that's three varieties, several plants of each, in two different beds. The male flowers on all plants are still tiny and not even close to opening, and I'll probably be harvesting the first zukes tomorrow.

I've never had this happen before. Anyone have any idea why in the world this happens? I'm curious.

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Comments (4)

seysonn
10 years ago
Mine has ben the opposite. They all started with males and a couple of days(so far) I have had just 2 females, that I hand pollinated. But I see lots of female flower buds in early stage all over. We used to get bees all over sage plant flowers, but once it is over, they are not coming back(darn it) So I have to do the bees job too.lol
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
10 years ago
That happened to me. While cucurbits are usually bred to have male flowers come out first (I'm assuming this attracts pollinators with the least expenditure of energy), I am told that for large scale farms, where I guess pollinators are used to coming, they are bred the opposite way. That's because they want their fruit fast, and if you have one male flower, you can do the job on many female flowers. So you may have gotten some of that latter variety.
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I just checked and today it's just the opposite. I have about a dozen male flowers open and only two female flowers open. I cut a male flower off and cut away the petal part and used it to pollenate the two females. You can see the orange colored pollen laying in the bottom of the male flower. I did this two days ago and see one zuke about six inches long has formed already. I see many ants inside the flowers, what are they after, the pollen or the nectar? I also saw one lone bee go inside one of the flowers but it apparently died right before my eyes as it just sat there immobilized. I saw a dead bee inside one of my asian pear flowers a month or so ago too. I wonder whats killing them. I don't use any pesticides so it isn't me.
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It is normal for old zucchini leaves to yellow up and die, but it doesn't seem like this is the problem your having. It's hard to say what's going on here, for sure you are having some kind of bug problem. What I'm not sure is if the bugs are causing the leaves to die or if it is a combination of bug and some kind of disease. Also how's the drainage in those tubs? If your zucchini are sitting in water constantly they will die. If it were me I would remove all the dead foilage, and throw it in a garbage bag. If there's any dead leaves on the ground pick them up also and throw them away. Then go to the store and buy some habernero peppers or any hot chiles. Pick up some garlic too. Cut up or mash up in a processor and throw the contents into an empty milk jug. Fill the milk jug with 10% skim milk and the rest water. Throw the cap on it and sit it outside and let it sit for a day. Then spray your leaves with this solution. This should help treat any fungal disease if there is any and also keep the pests away. You will have to re-apply when it rains or if you splash it off when watering.
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I'm just trying to give them better choices for flowers, that's why I let the broccoli bolt, they'll go after it and leave the tomato blooms alone for now. I need to plant more pentas in the garden too, and make sure it's well enough away from the tomatos to not be affected when I spray the tomatoes. Squash is another story, hard to keep the bees away from it. If I see another die-off after using the spinosad I'll probably quit growing squash, and only grow greenhouse cucumbers inside the pool cage since a few moths will still get to them, but I can keep the bees out and still spray.... At any point the moths lay their eggs in the new buds of cukes/zukes and when the worms migrate down to the leaves they are so small you can't see them until they gain some size, so you can selectively just spray the BUDS every week and try to stay away from the flowers. Tom
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Here is another idea for you. I made these a couple of months ago and will probably make them again soon. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Stuffed Zucchini ================ Hollow out Zucchini. Saute onions and garlic, add the ground pork, the inside of the zucchini, Arborio rice, season with dill, parsley, lemon zest, seeded and chopped tomatoes and chicken broth. Cover and simmer until the rice is almost cooked and the broth reduced. Stuff the zucchini. Place stuffed zucchini in a pan with a little chicken broth, cover and simmer until the zucchini is tender. Avgolemono Sauce Rather than make the traditional Avgolemono sauce enriched with eggs, I make a sauce using: 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 3 cups of chicken broth Salt Pepper Juice of one lemon Lemon zest optional Make a roux using the butter and flour. Add the chicken broth and when the sauce is cooked add the juice of one lemon and the zest if using. Season with salt and pepper and serve over the cabbage rolls.
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
10 years ago
I had all female blooms first too...not to worry.
elisa_z5
Original Author
10 years ago
Dan - Hmmm. . . and my seeds are from Johnny's, and they sell to a lot of large scale farms. I wonder?

Well, it has made for some nice visiting -- one of my neighbors today asked me if I'd gotten enough male flowers, so I think that means I can go back to him when the ones I got today are past. And it's working -- we ate the first Zephyr squash tonight, and Costata Romanesco coming tomorrow!

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