Gardeners’ Forum: “non-productive squash”
Back to Gardeners’ Forumnon-productive squash
Posted by brenda on Thursday, August 7, 2008 10:27 PM ADTWell, I'll try again...maybe it's not fertilizer that I need. My 6 or so squash plants are huge, with masses of blossoms, but in past experience, do not produce many squash. Should I cut back the vines?
re: non-productive squash
Posted by Amelinda on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:56 PM ADTI can think of a couple of suggestions, based on my own similar experience and the much greater success of a friend of mine. (1) Squash are heavy feeders - they need both full sun (which was probably my problem; I got exactly three small squash growing them in dappled shade) and lots of "food" in the soil. My friend grew hers on the compost heap in a sun-drenched, south-facing backyard and would reliably have 40+ squash by Hallowe'en. (2) Squash produce male and female flowers - look for a little green blob just behind the flower that looks like a tiny squash to identify the female ones. If conditions are right (see #1) the plants will produce more of these, or so I understand. If for whatever reason you're not getting a lot of pollinators in your garden, you can pick off the male flowers and brush the pollen directly onto the female ones to make sure they get fertilized.
