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.

Zucchini come in all shapes and sizes. The major production problem lies in lack of pollination. They are insect pollinate and with scarcity of pollinating insects like bees, you may have to resort to hand pollination. Epsom salts is a magnesium source. Only useful in soils which have low magnesium levels. Magnesium is one of the minor nutrients for plant growth. Nitrates, Phosphates and potassium are the major. With even moderate soil fertility, most zucchini are abundant producers. The long types can be harvested any time but are better under 10 inches. Round types are best at baseball to softball size.

Welcome to the world of veggies! Never have much luck with zucchini. Always get taken by borers. (Blueridge - what kind do you grow? Mine usually seem to be a bush type rather than a rambler...but that may be because they die too soon.) I can generally get close to a couple of dozen peppers off of one plant. I cage my tomatoes, but I usually just grow a couple of romas and a few better boys. I generally pinch them in the beginning to make them bushier, but once they reach the top of the cage, I just let them tumble and go where they want. They're in a 4x8 raised bed. Tip here - toss a handful of lime in the hole when you plant them. It will help to prevent blossom end rot. Also, if you want more plants, don't go buy them. Just cut off a branch, stick it in a jar of water and in about a week you'll have roots and you can't plant it.

"A plant drinks 6-7 litters of water a day now" No, there is no way that plant needs more than 3 liters per day. If you've measured properly (and it is not draining out, I interpret my comment about overheating the soil as being the *principal* problem. Fix that! When the leaves get to that stage I pinch them off. I don't know whether the curl is from heat and dying alone, or if there is something else there, but it look not bad so far. The only reason to keep a leaf like that is if it is shading a fruit and keeping the sun off. Otherwise keeping it on the plant will only increase the chances a weakened plant will get an out of control disease, IMO, because they are are good media for breeding of pathogens. The plant has already withdrawn nutrients from it which as seysonn mentioned may not be optimally delivered. The damage doesn't look too bad (diseased) to me, could be prompted from insects and the plant naturally removing nutrients from it to give to nerw growth. Nothing wrong with pinching off leaves from the bottom as the plant gets taller and puts out more in the zones where the new fruits are developing. While the above ground plant can tolerate those high temperatures,the roots are in overdrive and very uncomfortable. This will just weaken your plant.