Zuccini Plants are not growing Zuccinis

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Hi Friends,
just discovered that BYC is not only about feathered friends, but also a good source for gardening tips & tricks.
I have a problem with my Zuccini plants:

I have grown them in pots, starting in March this year and planted them outside in May. Since then they have struggled to grow but have developed a lot of flowers. You can see the next flower and a lot of empty stems around it where its predecessors once were but no squash has grown so far. Is it the poor quality of our soil here that holds them back. Thea area around the house had been leveled bu a previous owner with what is called here »fill-dirt«, a mixture of loamy marl with lot's of rocks. When i tilled the bed in spring i worked in some half rotten duck-bedding, but it did not soften the ground as much as i thought. The cucumber plants are struggling too and the water-melons simply died off…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Another picture of the Zuccini plants:

The Zuccini plants together with the cucumbers:

 

[Trish1974]

I'm having the same problem. I get blooms but they don't develop into anything. I've never had problems with zucchini before. Hopefully someone can help us!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I'm having the same problem. I get blooms but they don't develop into anything. I've never had problems with zucchini before. Hopefully someone can help us!

It is the first time that i tried to grow Zuccini in the U.S. but we always had Zuccini plants in the garden back in Germany because it was so easy to grow them: Just push some seed into the ground, water if it doesn't rain enough and three months later you can harvest…

 

[BrahmaGirl2018]

You are lacking pollinators...if you want zucchinis you are going to have to pollinate the flowers yourself. Take a small paint brush and move pollen from one plant to another.

 

[Serin]

Zucchinies have male and female blossoms. male flowers are on a long thin stem, females have a round baby zucchini under the blossom and are lower down on the plant often right along the stem. I don't see any female blossoms on your plant. Male flowers come first, then the female blossoms a bit later on. Pollinating two male flowers will not do anything obviously but once you see the female blossoms, cut of a male flower from another plant and rub the stamens together to pollinate it. Once zucchinis do start,t hey usually produce an abundance, but much of the country had a bad wet spring this year so a lot of crops are behind now.

 

[ShannonR]

The last two posts have been very helpful. Hand pollination is often key. Learn to identify male flowers and female flowers.

I only saw male flowers in the pics... one way to jump start female flower production is to back off on the water for a few days....

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

You are lacking pollinators...if you want zucchinis you are going to have to pollinate the flowers yourself. Take a small paint brush and move pollen from one plant to another.

Is that a general problem here in the U.S.? We have plenty of insects crawling and flying around here. Wild bees, wasps, flys everything, so do Zuccini plants need some specific insects species that are unavailable here? Never had to hand pollinate them back in Germany.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Zucchinies have male and female blossoms. male flowers are on a long thin stem, females have a round baby zucchini under the blossom and are lower down on the plant often right along the stem. I don't see any female blossoms on your plant. Male flowers come first, then the female blossoms a bit later on. Pollinating two male flowers will not do anything obviously but once you see the female blossoms, cut of a male flower from another plant and rub the stamens together to pollinate it. Once zucchinis do start,t hey usually produce an abundance, but much of the country had a bad wet spring this year so a lot of crops are behind now.

Indeed we had a wet spring here in WV! Several of my Tomato plants drowned and i had to replant new ones and so far not many tomatoes have grown.
So maybe just a little patience?

 

[Serin]

Is that a general problem here in the U.S.? We have plenty of insects crawling and flying around here. Wild bees, wasps, flys everything, so do Zuccini plants need some specific insects species that are unavailable here? Never had to hand pollinate them back in Germany.

Pollinators are in decline now due to the neonicitinoid pesticides in widespread use. I have not seen even one bee this year.