Here's a post that GW Squash expert WeirdTrev made that addressed a similar issue. Hope it helps with yours. Posted by weirdtrev Z7 MD (My Page) on Tue, Jun 2, 09 at 15:17 Do you have any fruits already on those plants? Every female flower is not able to become a squash, you will lose many. With most vining squash (including your tromboncino) once a female is pollinated subsequent females will wither away. This is because at that time the plant is not able to support multiple fruits. If you remove the pollinated fruit or the vines get bigger you will have more females. Also, If you don't pick your Romanesco zucchini often the same thing can happen. Maybe you forgot to pick one and had a really large zucchini, well that will definitely cause other females to abort before ever opening. You might promptly remove that large zucchini but the damage is done and it can be weeks before you get another. Personally, I have experienced that problem with the blossom not opening on a zucchini and I resolved the issue by growing in a different location. Not sure if the location had sun/water/nutrient problems, but moving it fixed the problem for the future. And if your other squash are located away from the problem squash, then location is definitely the issue and you should figure out what is different between it and the successful locations in your garden. Hope that helps a little! Susan

So far I have been absolutely LOVING growing everything in containers and my results have already been way better with 10X less hassles. Bell Peppers--last year the stems barely got as big as a pencil and I managed to get just a handful of bells all year and they were not that big. This year the plants already are larger as in taller and stockier than last and are loaded up with fruit. Eggplants--same as above. Keep in mind many of my egg plants and bells are in 3 gallon buckets. Both the bells and eggplants are almost waist high and loaded, and have stems fat as my thumb. Tomatoes-- they are LOADED with tomatoes and I have already been eating some cherries. 96 days from sprout to eat. And on top of that NO WEEDS. I raised about 15 tomato plants for my dad at the same time I was doing mine. He put his in the ground and I put mine in buckets on the same day. Mine are WEEKS ahead of his for comparable varieties. My fruits are the size of baseballs. His are the size of golf balls. Watermelons-- 3 or 4 vines per 5 gallon bucket and I have fruit larger than baseballs already. Cantaloupes are a little slower but are covered in flowers. Zuchs-- they are already producing handfuls of fruit every so often. They didn't get big and bushy but thats fine as long as they keep putting out fruit. All of my plants are twice as big and twice as healthy as they were in the ground (with the except of the zuchs). They are half size but are out performing plants planted on the same day 25 feet away. Seems to me the ones on the ground are all vine and no fruit... I ran some soaker hoses across the tops of my buckets and bought a Y for the waterhose. I zip tied the hose down and now with one knob turn I water everything and I have yet to pull a weed. I would say give it a go. Put 4 small holes in the bottom edges of your totes and plant away. Get some good soil and mix'er up with some miracle grow and from now on you can control what your plants eat and drink. For me it is almost automated now except for picking the fruit. If I invest in a waterhose timer it will be automated. If you have 10 gallon containers I would be on that like white on rice.

Okay...so before the giant downpour today I pruned back some of the older leaves - the ones that have been around since DAY ONE (they were HUGE). I have to say that in doing so I noticed that my cukes, which are all wandering in this one bed, were getting yellowed leaves and the stems of the leaves were getting "yucky" for a lack of better words - mushy - and the initial cukes that were trying to form were also mushy. So...maybe it was too wet and no sun or ventilation? The flowers on the zucchini are opening, and are hanging out for a while, until the zukes get to about 4" in length (not thick though, maybe 1" in diameter or less) and then the flower gets mushy, sags, and then falls off. I do leave the zukes there for about 24-48 hours, and when the tip where the flower was starts to turn yellow, I clip them as that means they are going bad (mushy). I salvage as many of the little guys as I can - as a matter of fact just sauted a bunch of them with some onions and had them for dinner - so they are very tasty, just very small. I think I salvaged about 7 today...no flowers, starting to turn yellowish on the ends. So...I think I am waiting long enough to see if they keep developing...right? I have a couple of larger zukes out there, so I am now keeping an eye on them. I did not get to pollinating today because I was so busy cutting the overgrown leaves out. I have left many leaves, but the ones on the lower levels are removed so hopefully the ventilation will increase and maybe dry out a bit. I did see many worms - they always startle me, but I was really pleased to see them since these are new beds! - and many cukes coming up that are not mushy. :o) As for nitrogen...I did the beds as lasagna beds and am not adding chemicals. I did add UCGs, but could not do as much as I had wanted a few weeks ago because of the leaf issue! Now that I can get to them, I will add more - this should fix any nitrogen imbalance, correct? I also bury veggie cuttings and eggshells out of the kitchen periodically...I bury around the plants, not too close to disturb the roots. Now, again, since I can GET to the ground (haha) I will be able to do more of that around the zukes and cukes. Is there anything else you guys think I should be doing? DH plays guitar for them (well, he plays guitar outside on the deck and it's near the plants, so...there you go!), we water pretty regularly since the rain has been rare around here (except for this week!). Again, I did check while I was digging around the plants today and nothing was on the stems, under the leaves, or on the leaves....saw a lot of ants, though, but no weird looking bugs that could be sucking the life out of my cukes.

I plant squash 1 plant every 4'. I would thin them, but you don't have to. Six squash plants, if they grow and produce normally, will give you enough squash for very close to the rest of your life. As for pollination, if you have squash bees (Peponapis & Xenoglossa spp.) pollination will never be an issue. Honey bees actually are very poor pollinators of squash plants because the pollen is generally too large, and flowers close to early, before the honey bees even wake up and get going for the day. Squash bees As the Pepo in Peponapis suggests) are designed specifically for the job at hand ;). In fact, sometimes I grow squash only to ensure that I maintain my healthy population of P. pruinosa bees.