Zuccini Plants are not growing Zuccinis

[MountainGaurdian]

How many food sources do you have in close proximity to your zucchini plants? Pollination is a source of food for your pollinators and like anything they are all about efficiency. If you had the choice of a field of food versus a pot of food which would attract you more? A field of food is an all you can eat buffet in one area, the pot is a few bites of food and then you have to travel for the next few bites. If you could place your plants close to even a small flower garden I think you might get a lot more pollination going on.

My garden is near a large basswood tree in my yard, the tree has so many bees and bumble bees you can hear the hum for 75 feet..

My zucchini are having the issue of being half eaten by my goat about 10 days ago, but they are coming back from it alright.

I also have a large amount of potatoes, radishes, mustard, yellow bottleneck squash, pumpkin and cucumbers flowering right now as well in my garden which helps to attract more pollinators.

 

[ShannonR]

How many food sources do you have in close proximity to your zucchini plants? Pollination is a source of food for your pollinators and like anything they are all about efficiency. If you had the choice of a field of food versus a pot of food which would attract you more? A field of food is an all you can eat buffet in one area, the pot is a few bites of food and then you have to travel for the next few bites. If you could place your plants close to even a small flower garden I think you might get a lot more pollination going on.

My garden is near a large basswood tree in my yard, the tree has so many bees and bumble bees you can hear the hum for 75 feet..

My zucchini are having the issue of being half eaten by my goat about 10 days ago, but they are coming back from it alright.

I also have a large amount of potatoes, radishes, mustard, yellow bottleneck squash, pumpkin and cucumbers flowering right now as well in my garden which helps to attract more pollinators.

Great post regarding the pollinator preferences. Sounds like you have an impressive garden going yourself! Sunflowers help, as do letting artichokes go to flower, any other curcubits you are growing, nightshade type species (tomatoes, peppers, tomatillo, ect.) Or most anything else flowering this time of year.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

How many food sources do you have in close proximity to your zucchini plants? Pollination is a source of food for your pollinators and like anything they are all about efficiency. If you had the choice of a field of food versus a pot of food which would attract you more? A field of food is an all you can eat buffet in one area, the pot is a few bites of food and then you have to travel for the next few bites. If you could place your plants close to even a small flower garden I think you might get a lot more pollination going on.

My garden is near a large basswood tree in my yard, the tree has so many bees and bumble bees you can hear the hum for 75 feet..

My zucchini are having the issue of being half eaten by my goat about 10 days ago, but they are coming back from it alright.

I also have a large amount of potatoes, radishes, mustard, yellow bottleneck squash, pumpkin and cucumbers flowering right now as well in my garden which helps to attract more pollinators.

I envy you! You have achieved a lot in providing food for the family!
My Zuccini plants are close to an unmowed pasture with lot's of wild flowers - well i had the ducks there a while ago, so not so many flowers right now, but they will be back.
I have to fight for every square foot of flat land, i live on a steep hill-site and the soil is really poor. My dream is to terrace the hill, so that i could cultivate a lot more stuff, but that is a lot of work and will be expensive…

 

[MountainGaurdian]

No tomatoes this year and I have never managed to grow peppers, those are both tough to grow here as even in mid July and August our over night lows are commonly in the 40's. Yesterday we had a high of 75 F and an over night low of 50 F. I have found it really tough to grow tomato or peppers with our over night lows in the summer.

I often grow tomatoes in the house but I just haven't had the time, with four teenagers aged 14 to 19 and sports and HS activities and a paraplegic wife on bedrest for the last two 1/2 years I just haven't had the time or the energy this year.

I had a lot of sunflowers and beans planted but most all of that has been eaten by deer, elk and my goats, I guess planting against the fences wasn't best idea after all. Next year I will go ahead and plant a diversionary plot. I buy a 25 or 50 pound bag of blackoil sunflower and rough up the ground and lay out 1/2 an acre or an acre of seed and grow a mass quantity of 3 to 4 foot sunflowers. This is really effective at distracting everything from eating my garden.

 

[MountainGaurdian]

Tell us more please! - The only problem i have with those carpenter-bees [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_bee] is that most of my outside structures are made out of pressure-treated wood and they are drilling holes ½" in diameter into that. Too many of those holes and everything will fall apart.

Make bee boards, the bees will use them before drilling holes in your buildings. Another thing to consider is that I defy you to find anyone on the internet renting or selling filled bee boards that are not currently "sold out". Those bee boards filled up are worth a fair little bit of money these days and the supply is no where near the level of demand..

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

No tomatoes this year and I have never managed to grow peppers, those are both tough to grow here as even in mid July and August our over night lows are commonly in the 40's. Yesterday we had a high of 75 F and an over night low of 50 F. I have found it really tough to grow tomato or peppers with our over night lows in the summer.

I often grow tomatoes in the house but I just haven't had the time, with four teenagers aged 14 to 19 and sports and HS activities and a paraplegic wife on bedrest for the last two 1/2 years I just haven't had the time or the energy this year.

I had a lot of sunflowers and beans planted but most all of that has been eaten by deer, elk and my goats, I guess planting against the fences wasn't best idea after all. Next year I will go ahead and plant a diversionary plot. I buy a 25 or 50 pound bag of blackoil sunflower and rough up the ground and lay out 1/2 an acre or an acre of seed and grow a mass quantity of 3 to 4 foot sunflowers. This is really effective at distracting everything from eating my garden.

Consider yourself lucky with your overnight lows: Last two nights we sat in the upper 70's and i didn't sleep well, plus the neighbor at the end of the valley is making charcoal again…
Sorry to hear about your wife, mine has fibromyalgia which makes her some kind of allergic to any cold air (no AC!) and unable to do much chores. Fortunately we have no more kids in the house!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Make bee boards, the bees will use them before drilling holes in your buildings. Another thing to consider is that I defy you to find anyone on the internet renting or selling filled bee boards that are not currently "sold out". Those bee boards filled up are worth a fair little bit of money these days and the supply is no where near the level of demand..

I have several piles of old wood all over the property. Had to cut the dead branches out of the old apple trees here and never found the energy to bring the cut branches up to the house as it is a 40° hill-site. So the carpenter bees should have enough wood to bore their holes into, but they seem to prefer the treated wood. It is likely that those treatment chemicals attract them. I've heart about neo-nicotines having the same effect of honey bees. What deflects the carpenter bees is when i paint the wood with red barn-paint or with white-wash. Sadly i have only two hands…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

- The first zucchini squashes have grown:

Together with lot's of cucumbers:

My Veggie Garden Album…

 

[WaterGoat]

I've found that trimming/thinning out the leaves of my zucchinis (and squash and cukes) so the flowers are visible to passing pollinators helps in my garden (at least I think it does). Plus I hope that better air flow will keep down that annoying powdery mildew that always infects the leaves.

 

[MountainGaurdian]

I think I am getting some decent pollination.... I have already harvested two or three from this plant.