Yep, they open early in the morning and close up soon after. I don't know if the blossoms are still viable after they close. I always hand-polinate at dawn because the bees don't show up in my garden till later in the morning, or even the afternoon.

Thanks for the response fliptx, that's what I was afraid of... I'm not all that good at being up at dawn every day, but I guess if it's the only way to get zucchinis I'll have to be more disciplined.

slashy

Is this your first time growing zucchini?

I never hand-pollinated mine and was overwhelmed with zucchini from 2 plants until I was sick of them! Zucchini is nothing if not extremely prolific. It is so prolific that it's called the bunny of the vegetable patch, people BEG others to take them off their hands, and there are jokes about it. One is "How can you tell if a person has no friends?" Answer, "That person buys zucchini at the market."

But, nonetheless, you could certainly hand-pollinate them until they start producing on their own. FWIW, bees are not the only pollinators -- there are all sorts of little flying buggies that will do that if bees don't reach your female blossom in time, and many are up early and at work.

Enjoy your zukes!

Hi Anney, this is actually my second planting of zucchinis, but still my first season- I planted some in pots some months back and have had a pretty small crop off them (15 or so fruit over three months), and began this plant in a raised bed where it seems to be thriving much better than the original plants.

I aspire to being that person who is overwhelmed by zucchinis! I'm vegetarian and zucchinis make up a pretty huge part of my diet, plus I have lots of friends who'd be THRILLED to take surplus off my hands. It's been nice having a reasonably steady supply such that I haven't had to buy any in a few months, but I don't think I'll be satisfied til I have a mountain of them and have to eat them for breakfast, lunch & dinner... Fortunately my raised-bed zucchini looks like it'll do a much better job at this than the ones in pots!

I have to say that without hand-pollination my original plants in pots would have given me about 2 zucchinis. I had serious blossom-drop for a while, which has stopped since I started checking the plants every morning and pollinating the open blossoms by hand. I've come to think of my zucchinis as being very bad at organising their own love-lives, to the point where they need me to act as a dating agency for them. Not sure why this is, since my garden seems to otherwise have a pretty healthy population of pollinators. I'm told this is an occasional feature of any member of the squash family.

-Slashy

Slashy

You don't say what zucchini variety you're growing but if you have the space, why not plant another one to see if it produces better without hand-pollination? I know nothing about Aussie seed companies but did find the one below that carries several varieties.

You might also think about planting some other plants that attract bees so they'll be drawn to your zucchini blossoms while there.

Here are a few: Appropriate Herbs for attracting bees & butterflies

Basil, Borage, Catnip, Cornflower, Dill, Echinacea, Evening Primrose, Fennel, Goldenrod, Horehound, Hyssop, Lavender, Parsley, Poppy, Thyme, Sage

Appropriate ornamentals & flowers for attracting bees & butterflies

Bachelor's Button, Black-Eyed Susan, Butterfly Bush, Clematis, Coreopsis, Dame's Rocket, Foxglove, Goldenrod, Heliotrope, Hydrangea, Lantana, Larkspur, Mexican Hat, Plumbago, Rose of Sharon, Salvia, Sweet William, Zinnia

Anyway, it's nice not to have to hand-pollinate crops unless you must!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mr. Fothergills

Hey Slashy, I'm veg too and I wanted to grow zucchini for the same reasons. :) I've never had the kind of luck with zukes that others seem to. I've grown it and other summer squash 8 or 9 times and gotten maybe twenty fruits total. My luck started improving a bit with hand-pollination, and using a parthenocarpic variety called Parthenon. Even when the bees do come, they seem more interested in my herb and cucumber flowers than the squash blossoms. No idea why!

Hi Anney,
I had two 8-ball zucchinis in pots in a bed of nasturtium, grevillea & lavender that absolutely buzzed with bees, butterflies & other flying things, so I was forced to conclude that despite the presence of the pollinators, my zucchinis were still not gonna be able to do it for themselves. I suspect this might have had something to do with the limited 'opening hours' of the female zucchini blossoms- as fliptx mentions above, the bees never seemed to turn up til the afternoon when the female blossoms were closed.
I wonder if this is a climate thing, as fliptx mentions the same problem in Texas, which I presume is very warm in the growing season, and other Australian growers have mentioned it as well- perhaps it's a feature of zucchinis in hot, dry climates?
I have three new zucchini plants (a lebanese-type that is producing already, and two patty-pan types that are at the boy-flower stage but haven't produced yet) in a bed with parsley, sage, thyme, marigolds, basil and some flowering mints that seems just as popular with the pollinators, but I'm sticking with hand-pollination for now, cos so far any female flower I've missed pollinating by hand has just dropped off without developing while the ones I pollinate develop into fruit.
It's annoying to have to add it to my list of garden chores, and I'm not very good at being up that early in the morning, but that appears to be the price of growing zucchinis in my garden.

Fliptx- All my sympathy! I'm a 1 kilo of zucchini from the shop per week kinda girl and all these jokes about zucchini over-production had me excited that I could easily meet that quantity out of my garden. Felt like a bit of a failure when it didn't happen. Still, my lebanese-variety zucchini has been massively out-producing my 8-ball types (three zucchinis in a week so far and three more on the bush between one and three days from ready) so I suspect it has a lot to do with experimenting with variety. I'll have to look into the parthenocarpic varieties next year too.

-Slashy
Zucchini fiend.

Here is a link that might be useful: My lebanese zucchini