Butternut Squash Flowers

We are growing them for the first time this year and the plants as well as getting quiet large, now have flowers that are coming and going and are doing not much else.I would like to know from any one who has grown these before how do we get the flowers to form fruit.?

Mr Kandy says that the flowers we are getting all seem to be male ones and as there doesn't seem to be any female ones appearing yet,the flowers just keep dying.How do we get the female ones to start flowering because at this rate they are going to keep missing each other once the females do start to do something.Do we have to hand pollinate them or do we let the bees do it all and why don't the female flowers come at the same time as the male ones?

Any advice would be appreciated...Thanks:thumb:

 

That's rather odd Kandy. Here up in the frozen, or rather soggy, north we've no problems with squash apart from the odd one rotting due to dampness. I've one on that must weigh about 1kg and is just about ready for harvest and a half doz smaller ones

 

Sorry Kandy my butter-nut-squash turned out to be a marrow I think they got the seeds mixed up. Will try again next year.

 

You will usually get lots of male flowers before the female fruit appear.

The trouble is (like me) it's getting a bit late for the fruit to develop anyway even if you do get any females.

I've only just got some females ,all be it about 4 weeks too late (just like last year) but there will be no chance of 'em getting to a decent size ,and more importantly ripening unless we get an Indian Summer.

You're not alone.

Just put it down to a hopeless """Summer"""".

 

Thanks for your replys everyone,as I said this is the first time we have grown them and they are putting on lots of leaves,though perhaps we were late in getting the plants in the ground.We had to wait until the last frost had been and gone before we could plant them and because the weather keeps going from one extreme to the other I am not surprised they have decided not to fruit yet.:rolleyes::eek:

If these ones don't come to much I shall try again next year.At least the growth that has been put out will go into the compost bin so will be of some use,and Mr K will have to go back to buying them from the supermarket:(:D

 

It's my first year as well, and I have a similar problem, about 50% of the plants are all male flowers, and on the rest there is just one fruit, nice healthy ones, but only 1. They grow over everything else as well, some of my plants are over a metre long. I think I will try the method for courgettes I have used before, fill a large plastic pot with a good soil compost mix, then turn it over like a sandcastle cut off the bottom (now the top) and plant in there. they do need to be watched for water, but the results were good.

 

Good News,popped over to the allotment today to pick some more beans and found these little beauties....:thumb:




There are about seven at the moment,so hopefully will have some to pick for Mr K later on.I expect I ought to put something underneath them to protect my babies from the soil:p:D

 

Thanks for that Shiney,glad you saw this post.I thought that by the time you got on line the thread would have been over the other page:eek::D