Scale

Plants start to flower if they are stressed, so you might consider whether your squash have enough moisture and fertilizer. If you want to pinch off flowers, no problem, I suppose.

Thanks

Dan, is there a case to be made for only pinching the female flowers? As I understand it, the early male blooms help attract pollinators for later, yes?

I believe that's correct, that most squash put out male flowers first, because that attracts pollinators in a less nutrient-costly way than female flowers. But they usually precede female flowers by just a few weeks. If you want to start fruiting in just a few weeks then, sure, leave them on.

Ok, thanks. I'm going to leave them on but the issue is that a crookneck squash is how wide the plant is... so does the plant grow more when it fruits?

Looks like a healthy plant that is developing as expected. It will keep growing after it begins flowering. I'd expect flowering to begin on a plant that size. I expect it will be overflowing the bed in a month or so.

Certainly, one could expect that when a plant is working on developing a big fruit, less energy is going in to developing the foliage. So if you have a respectably long season, it makes sense to discourage fruiting while it is small. My squash often flower when at that size but I almost never see a female flower until the plant is a lot larger.

Also, the bottom picture on the previous post, the leaf on the far left...is that some kind of fungus? Not sure what to do about it... that was taken a few days ago and now seems much further along...Any suggestions?Here is today...

Is what not normal? Squash, like all cucurbits, has male and female flowers. You'll recognize the females by the baby fruit at the base of the flower. What exactly are you asking about, other than your leaf issue?

The spotting on the leaves I'll leave to someone who knows more about squash, although I'd say my first step with most leaf issues is to think about how much/often I'm watering, then to check the undersides of the leaves for evidence of pests. It looks like that plant might be in a container? I'd think it would take a pretty big container to keep squash happy.

I was referring to the the post that said plants start to flower when they are stressed. Although my plant is growing like crazy, there are crazy amounts of flowers as well. Should I be pinching off certain flowers as opposed to others? We have had massive amounts of rain since they have been potted. Have filled a 20 gallon container within 2 weeks or so (from a 4 inch pot). They are in felt grow containers so they should dry out fairly quick.. at least I hope

Plants also start to flower when they are mature enough. Yours looks like it is doing fine with both growth and flowers. I would not do anything with the flowers. I'm never absolutely certain exactly what causes leaf trouble with my plants so I won't try to guess at yours.

Plants start to flower when they are stressed. Because their whole purpose in life is to make more of themselves. I didn't say that plants don't flower when they aren't stressed. Your plant is mature and ready to produce. Hence it will flower. Just that simple. If the plant was not mature and not ready to produce, stress could make it try to do so anyway.

Your point doesn't make a lot of sense. So when you get fruits from vegetables, it has to be because they're stressed?

Just simply asking if mine would appear stressed or normal. I have not seen stressed flowers vs. normal flowers to know the difference. Yes, mine is producing, but not near at the rate of the number of blooms I am seeing. Wasn't trying to pick apart what you were saying, was simply just asking if mine appears how it should.

IME with other cucurbits, flowers dying and falling off is a pollinator thing - not enough of them at the right time of day. It could also be that there aren't enough available male flowers for pollinating the female flowers...most cucurbits (for me, anyway) tend to do best when they've got a few of one kind rather than just one. Remember, the bees aren't necessarily going to go directly from a male flower to a female flower, or even to another flower on the same plant.

Last year I had just one pumpkin vine - got to be huge, like 20' long in places - but got just two good pumpkins off of it. Problem? I'd go out in the morning when the flowers were open, and there would be no pollinators. Go out in the afternoon, when they were all closed/closing, and there were what appeared to be bees all over it. They just weren't there when the flowers were ready for pollen.

Beth, google downy mildew and powdery mildew and see if it's what's afflicting your leaves. Daconil is widely available in the US to deal with this problem.

Daren

Beth- The OP's plant is still kinda on the small side. Small-ish plants will tend to flower early if they have had some sort of stress, whether it be transplanting or a water shortage or whatever.

Your plant is in a completely different situation than the OP's. Yours is larger and is flowering because it's time to. Nothing to fret over. The leaf damage is something you need to look into though. Several diseases/fungi affect cucurbits.

Here's a good link to check out: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/pests/plant_pests/veg_fruit/hgic2206.html

"Yes, mine is producing, but not near at the rate of the number of blooms I am seeing."

Squash have separate male and female flowers. Females have a little fruit behind the bloom whereas males have just a skinny stem. I see a lot of male flowers in your pics. That's why there are more flowers than fruit. Nothing to worry about.

Rodney

Thanks!