Q: My zucchini plant has made lots of flowers but no zucchini. What self-respecting gardener can’t grow a zucchini? What am I doing wrong?
A: It’s not you. This happens to everyone, and you were just an observant enough gardener to notice.
Many vining garden plants put out male flowers first. Squash, melon, and cucumbers all do this. You can tell the flowers are male because they have a stem. Female flowers are stemless, and you may see a tiny fruit at their base. Eventually, if growing conditions are right, these female flowers will appear, they’ll get some pollen from the guys, and soon you’ll be leaving piles of zucchini on your neighbors’ doorsteps.
Of course, growing conditions may not be right. If the plants are stressed, you may not get female flowers. Stressors include high temperatures, dryness and too much nitrogen.
And the plants need help to move the pollen from male to female flowers. If your garden lacks pollinators, you won’t get fruit. Bees can be prevented from doing their job by cold or rainy weather or by pesticides. If you have both male and female flowers but you’re still not getting fruit, a lack of pollinators may be the problem. You can move the pollen yourself. Do this when the flower first opens in the morning. Find the pollen inside the male flower and dab it with a paintbrush. It’s sticky and you should be able to pick some up and then transfer it to the female flower. After doing this rather tedious chore a few times, you’ll have some fertilized zucchini blossoms and a new appreciation for bees.
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Written by U of M Extension Master Gardeners in St. Louis County. Send questions to features@duluthnews.com.
