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My squash and gourds flower, but make no fruit, What's wrong
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seedfreak
Just Arrived
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Location: Coastal South Carolina
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject: My squash and gourds flower, but make no fruit, What's wrong |
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Hi, I hope someone can help me, My squash and gourds have lots of flowers, but they aren't making any fruit at all. what can I do? 
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desertflower
On The Way Up
Joined: 26 Jun 2007
Location: ARIZONA (Map)
Posts: 182
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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Could be too much nitrogen. It makes beautiful lush plants, but little or no fruit.
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Life is like a garden. Cultivate it, cherish it, enjoy it and above all, keep the weeds out!
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seedfreak
Just Arrived
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Location: Coastal South Carolina
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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My soil isn't far removed from "beach sand" got any ideas what it needs to get it to make fruit?
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Netty
Chaotic Gardener
 Regular Plantstew Contributor (over 1000 edits)
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Location: Southern Ontario zone 5a (Map)
Posts: 6996
PlantStew: 10292 |
| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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I'm no expert on Squash or Gourds, but I believe that there are male and female flowers and only the female flowers make fruit. Hopefully someone else knows more about it.
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desertflower
On The Way Up
Joined: 26 Jun 2007
Location: ARIZONA (Map)
Posts: 182
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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ok I found this site for you maybe it will help just fo there and then go down the page to squash..hope it helps
http://www.kimhaworth.com/vegs.html
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Life is like a garden. Cultivate it, cherish it, enjoy it and above all, keep the weeds out!
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harveymoon
Just Arrived
Joined: 21 May 2007
Location: london england
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:04 am Post subject: squash n gourd |
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hi seedfreak. sounds like a pollenation problem, pick a male flower, strip off the yellow petal leaving the stamen then brush inside the female to manualy pollenate ( works every time ) soon you will have enough fruit for you and the neighbours,happy growing T T F N harveymoon.
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seedfreak
Just Arrived
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Location: Coastal South Carolina
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks a bunch Harvey moon, I will try that this afternoon. Can there be too many squash?
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nan1234
On The Way Up
Joined: 23 Jul 2007
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 160
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| Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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Do you see female flowers? Female flowers are easily identified. A tiny baby fruit is located between the stem and the flower.
If you do not see female flowers, maybe you just wait for another couple of weeks. Squash and gourds starts with lots of male flowers first. Female flowers will emerge after a couple of weeks.
If you see that female flowers die and fall off, then you may have the pollenation problem. Squash and gourds need insects for pollenation.
If you do not see bees flying around, then you have to pollinate your plant by hand. Do the job in the early morning. The female flowers will close later in the day. Select a male flower and make sure the pollen is mature. Touch the stamen with your finger and see if tiny yellow particles come off on your finger. Using the stamen (with petals removed) and gently rub the pollen onto the inside stigma of the female flower.
If you see lots of bees, there might be some other problems. Check the following:
1. Look carefully around your blossoms and see if there are very tiny insects. These tiny thrip fly eat pollen and the female flowers may die and fall off. Many pollen eating insects are pollinators. But thrip flies usually do not make travels from flower to flower and they will eat all the pollen on both male and female.
2. Check the roots and see if there irregular brown-colored knots. If so, there are nematodes. They multiply rapidly and live off the essential liquids of the plant and the plant performance will be greatly reduced. By the time of flowering, the nematodes may multiplied so much that the plant may just barely to support the nematodes.
3. High day (above 90) and low night (below 55) time temperatures will cause plant stress and cause the tiny pollinated fruit to abort as a result. If your fruit is shriveling and dying because of weather, don't worry. As soon as the weather improves, you will see new females appear and succeed.
4. Do you have amper water? This is essential especially in hot days.
5. Stop putting any fertilizer with nitrogen on your plant and add more phosphorous to promote the flowering process. Too much nitrogen ia also a factor which will delay the setting of fruit on the vine.
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seedfreak
Just Arrived
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Location: Coastal South Carolina
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:32 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Nan, your info was helpful. Actually I think something was eating the roots of my plants because they shriveled at the stem and died. I think I will start some in containers this week and see what happens with real "potting soil" instead of "beach sand with leaves".
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nan1234
On The Way Up
Joined: 23 Jul 2007
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 160
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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How does the root look like? Here is the image of the comparison between the healthy (left) and the nematode infected:
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seedfreak
Just Arrived
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Location: Coastal South Carolina
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:38 am Post subject: |
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I am not sure what happened to the squash, but i have gourds that have rived kudzu and won! Again, lots of flowers, but no gourds. Maybe it is just too soon.
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nan1234
On The Way Up
Joined: 23 Jul 2007
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 160
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| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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Seedfreak, waht is the zone code in your area. Here in Chicago it propbally too late for gourds to form any new fruit.
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