Plenty of Male Flowers - No Females

MikeInCypress · May 11, 2014

I have a couple of GadZooks Zucchini growing well. Have had male flowers for over a week. No female flowers. Is there anything I can do to encourage female flowers?

MikeInCypress

kayrobbins · May 11, 2014

Male flowers always appear first. Be patient and you will soon see the females.

ChrisK · May 11, 2014

Make squash blossom pasta while you wait!

MarilynSloper · May 12, 2014

It's normal for lots of male flowers to grow first. People usually pick most of them and sauté them in olive oil. Your zucchini sound healthy so just relax and wait. The girls will be along. They just like to take their sweet time about it. You know how we girls like to make an entrance! LOL!

Tormato · May 12, 2014

Rarely, but it happens, I hear people get loads of male flowers with the female flowers showing up very late. This can lead to poor production, if the males are mostly gone when the females show up.

I'll start one plant about 10-14 days later than all of the others, to avoid this.

Gary

Worth1 · May 12, 2014

Have the male flowers put their hat on right, clean up, stay off the phone, pull their pants up, get the stupid blue tooth contraption out of their ear, and most of all tell the female flowers how pretty they are in their new yellow dress and more female flowers will show up.

Worth

Stvrob · May 12, 2014

Don't strip off all the males, the bees need to get in the habit of stopping by before the female flowers show up

salix · May 22, 2014

((Worth)) - that's for your #6 post!!

Father'sDaughter · June 29, 2014

The last three years growing Zucchini I had the same experience -- lots of male flowers at the beginning with female flowers showing up a week or two later. This year I'm seeing the opposite -- several female flowers on each plant with their mini zucchini base, and the males are still tiny little buds.

Anthony_Toronto · June 30, 2014

I'm seeing the opposite this year also, for zucchini. Females out early, no males for almost two weeks after the first female. For squash plants the males appeared before females.

Father'sDaughter · June 30, 2014

It'll be interesting to see how the Zucchini do this year given this. I have two plants of Striatto d'Italia from the same seed packet as the plants I grew last two years, and two plants of Green Tiger. Both varieties are behaving this way so I'm guessing it's environmental??

And the local CSA located two miles from me just announced that they will have zucchini available by Thursday. I guess they must have started their earlier than I did! I'll have to ask the farmer about her Zucchini's growing behavior.

Anthony_Toronto · June 30, 2014

I also mentioned on another thread that I have seen scant pollenators flying around the garden. I may be hand-pollenizing zukes, cukes, squash, and eggplant!

May 11, 2014	#1
MikeInCypress Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cypress, TX Posts: 963	Plenty of Male Flowers - No Females I have a couple of GadZooks Zucchini growing well. Have had male flowers for over a week. No female flowers. Is there anything I can do to encourage female flowers? MikeInCypress __________________ "Growing older, not up"

May 11, 2014	#3
ChrisK Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 1,448	Make squash blossom pasta while you wait! __________________ Blog: chriskafer.wordpress.com Ignorance more frequently begets knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. --Charles Darwin

May 22, 2014	#8
salix Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: north central B.C. Posts: 2,310	((Worth)) - that's for your #6 post!! __________________ "He who has a library and a garden wants for nothing." -Cicero

May 11, 2014	#2
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	Male flowers always appear first. Be patient and you will soon see the females.

May 12, 2014	#4
MarilynSloper Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Massachusetts Zone 5a Posts: 44	It's normal for lots of male flowers to grow first. People usually pick most of them and sauté them in olive oil. Your zucchini sound healthy so just relax and wait. The girls will be along. They just like to take their sweet time about it. You know how we girls like to make an entrance! LOL!

May 12, 2014	#5
Tormato Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MA Posts: 4,959	Rarely, but it happens, I hear people get loads of male flowers with the female flowers showing up very late. This can lead to poor production, if the males are mostly gone when the females show up. I'll start one plant about 10-14 days later than all of the others, to avoid this. Gary

May 12, 2014	#6
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Have the male flowers put their hat on right, clean up, stay off the phone, pull their pants up, get the stupid blue tooth contraption out of their ear, and most of all tell the female flowers how pretty they are in their new yellow dress and more female flowers will show up. Worth

May 12, 2014	#7
Stvrob Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Jacksonville, FL Posts: 1,413	Don't strip off all the males, the bees need to get in the habit of stopping by before the female flowers show up

June 29, 2014	#9
Father'sDaughter Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: MA/NH Border Posts: 4,917	The last three years growing Zucchini I had the same experience -- lots of male flowers at the beginning with female flowers showing up a week or two later. This year I'm seeing the opposite -- several female flowers on each plant with their mini zucchini base, and the males are still tiny little buds.

June 30, 2014	#10
Anthony_Toronto Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Toronto Posts: 413	I'm seeing the opposite this year also, for zucchini. Females out early, no males for almost two weeks after the first female. For squash plants the males appeared before females.