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Pumpkins, Squash & Gourds

Winter Squash -Kabocha only producing 1 fruit

12 years ago

My kabocha, which is growing like mad, has huge leaves and many flowers and bees to pollinate the flowers, has only set 1 fruit. It is huge for a kabocha and it still seems to be growing. The plant is sending out fruit flowers but nothing else is setting. They die off at about 1 inches. This is our first year for kabocha but I don't think this is normal.

Does anyone know what to do to get more fruit out of a squash plant? Our other squashes have 6-8 fruits right now.

Thanks

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Comments (4)

missingtheobvious
12 years ago
The plant is sending out fruit flowers but nothing else is setting. They die off at about 1 inches.

If dying off at that size, then the fruit are not getting pollinated. That could be a lack of pollinators (but you say there are plenty of bees). It could also be a lack of male flowers (unlikely to be that extreme). It could be inadequate water (doesn't sound like that's a problem).

Or it could be hot temps. If that's the case, I don't know of anything you can do.

===

Even though it may not solve your problem, here's macmex's excellent thread on hand pollinating squash. He's doing it to ensure pure seed or seed from a particular cross, but you can also hand pollinate if the bees don't seem to be doing their job. The same technique can be used for other cucurbits.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/gourds/msg0611545713356.html
Lesuko
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks MTO.

I wish we were able to save these articles to our profile for referencing when needed.

I tagged on a question to that post. My females are aborting before they come close to yellowing- even the males near them are small and green. I have males open about 4 ft back from the new females which I'm sure doesn't matter but the fruit is so young.

If these next two females abort while the temps are in the mid 80s this week(oh I'm shading the babies with the leaves too as I read somewhere else on this site), I'll try cutting the growth back and seeing if that will force new fruit on older growth- does it work this way? The vines are now 15ft long.

Thanks!
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missingtheobvious
12 years ago
Sorry, Lesuko, but I can't help you. I've grown cukes many times, bush zukes a few years back, and pumpkins, cantaloupes, and gourds a few times, but I'm not an expert.

As far as saving threads goes, do you ever store links as bookmarks (Firefox) or favorites (IE)? In Firefox the bookmarks live in the bookmark sidebar (View -- Sidebar -- Bookmarks); same place in IE but I don't remember what it's called or how to get there (probably very similar). Right-click to make folders for the bookmarks.
Lesuko
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks MTO.

A little update- I have a new baby kabocha that set (I think). The temps have been in the 80's these last few days and it may have been the right timing for this little guy.

Or, it's the result of the end of the vine getting mangled and not able to grow any longer. Perhaps the plant put it's energy into the fruit rather than the leaves????

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