I'm not sure about that. I might try it as a last resort after I examined all my growing conditions like type of soil, fertilizer, watering, etc.

This year I had a muskmelon plant that only produced one melon by mid season. It had lots of males and almost no females. I gave it a dose of fertilizer high in phosporous, and it took off! The plant doubled in size and set 5 more melons.

If a plant isn't growing properly, it's usually something I'm not doing right, or the weather.

Good info from Ed above. The plant is telling you it is stressed in some fashion so it isn't inclined to add the stress of reproduction and pollination.

This past summer was VERY stressful and from what I heard about Texas was all very dry and very hot. So I wouldn't be surprised if you had heavily stressed plants. Were they well mulched, well fed, properly watered, etc.

Since it is already so late in the season give it a try - removing some and see if it really will give you some females.

Dave

Well, i think the soil was good, well watered and fertilized because other plants (heat loving plants) eggplant, peppers, long beans, bitter gourd, pumpkin had absolutely no problem fruiting. Cucumbers fruited fine. I thought about fertilizer too and i fed those plants 10-50-10 soluble foliar as well as soil feeding. So, it has tobe something else. Even the plants that did not bear much fruit looked healthy and had lots of male flowers.

Hummmm....sounds like you did everything right. My plant "looked" healthy too, and after I gave it a shot of fertilizer it REALLY looked healthy. But you said you gave it a good dose of fertilizer. Give the plucking the males a try and report the results. I'd be curious to know if it worked.