Pollination

[Patrick Fenton]

Yesterday I watched a wonderful video on pollinating squash blossoms.  (Thank you for posting!)  The video showed the difference between a male flower and a female flower.  Well, I have blooms in both my aquaponic garden and out in the regular garden.  I have two plants in the aquaponic garden and ten hills in the regular garden.  I have had no squash all summer so I thought I would puff out my chest and go do some pollination.   Here's my question....  CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY I ONLY HAVE MALE BLOSSOMS ON EVERY SINGLE PLANT?  (And I was soooo pleased that I was going to put my new knowledge to work!

[Jon Parr]

Haha. Hey, as long as they're happy. Maybe your squash can redecorate your greenhouse, give the chives a fabulous haircut, or plan some fish weddings! Ok, I better quit.

Speaking of green 'maters, here in Santa Cruz we got hit with 'late blight' fast and hard in our dirt garden (AP still safe so far). We have never had that before. In two days, our tomato jungle went from luxuriant health to wasteland. My wife harvested six 5 gallon buckets of green tomatoes during the chop, not a single one had time to turn red. Ordinarily we have a big salsa party on labor day and can (or freeze) about 30 gallons of salsa from the garden. Had to change the plans this year. We tried a recipe for green tomato salsa. It's pretty good, I guess, but not as good. Had to add quite a bit of lemon juice get the acidity right. After, chopping the tomatoes, we thought we were in the clear, but then noticed it jumped to a four year old passion vine, and a few others garden plants. So we have decided to slash and burn everything in the dirt garden, and not plant tomatoes or potatoes for two years. Bummer

[Patrick Fenton]

Man your right!!!  That really does suck!!!  Maybe you can do five or six tomatoes in pots next year with clean soil so you don't totally go without.  Our soil here this year has not been warm.  We did eggplant in black pots this year and had tremendous success.  (6000 feet). Been a long time since I've spent a summer in this climate.  If we were home we would just be planting tomatoes.

 

So here's another idea for your green tomatoes.....  take all the smaller green tomatoes, half or quarter them and pickle them with dill.  (Ayep, like pickles)  They're ready by Thanksgiving and people will rave.  Put them right on the plate with the olives, pickles and other stuff.  Just be sure to put the alum in them so they've got a good crunch!!!

 

Oh, just so you know, those squash do have perfectly stylish blossoms!!!! LOLOLOLOL

 

Jon Parr said:

Haha. Hey, as long as they're happy. Maybe your squash can redecorate your greenhouse, give the chives a fabulous haircut, or plan some fish weddings! Ok, I better quit.

Speaking of green 'maters, here in Santa Cruz we got hit with 'late blight' fast and hard in our dirt garden (AP still safe so far). We have never had that before. In two days, our tomato jungle went from luxuriant health to wasteland. My wife harvested six 5 gallon buckets of green tomatoes during the chop, not a single one had time to turn red. Ordinarily we have a big salsa party on labor day and can (or freeze) about 30 gallons of salsa from the garden. Had to change the plans this year. We tried a recipe for green tomato salsa. It's pretty good, I guess, but not as good. Had to add quite a bit of lemon juice get the acidity right. After, chopping the tomatoes, we thought we were in the clear, but then noticed it jumped to a four year old passion vine, and a few others garden plants. So we have decided to slash and burn everything in the dirt garden, and not plant tomatoes or potatoes for two years. Bummer

[Jon Parr]

My greenhouse tomatoes are still free from blight, but I have only one plant. Fortunately it's a big one, and gives us half a dozen big ones every day. We tried pickling 7 quarts of green tomatoes before we tried salsa. We haven't opened them yet, but the we tasted the remainder and they were a little mushy. I don't know if we used alum, I'll check with the wife.

[TCLynx]

Well maybe you gotta just start eating the squash and zucchini blossoms.

[Patrick Fenton]

You might just be right!  We're close enough to the Navajo Nation to do just that!  And I might learn something in the doing so!!!!  I've certainly let enough of them go by, bloom by bloom!!  Smart idea TCL!

TCLynx said:

Well maybe you gotta just start eating the squash and zucchini blossoms.

[TCLynx]

I wonder if you perhaps got a batch of seed for one of the varieties that is bread particularly for blossoms.

[Patrick Fenton]

I think you may be correct TCL, it's just the strangest thing I've seen in a while.  With the odd thing being every single plant?  With two different types of squash?  Perhaps something happened to these seeds on the way to market.  Who knows.  The Blooming Variety sounds like the most feasible answer.  Thanks for your help!

TCLynx said:

I wonder if you perhaps got a batch of seed for one of the varieties that is bread particularly for blossoms.

[David Waite]

Thats funny......hehe

Jon Parr said:

Maybe it's a gay squash?

[Homefire]

Hi Patrick,

When were they started?  Could low autumn light be slowing them down?

 

I tried hand pollinating Zuccini and Cukes in the green house cuz no bees came in.  I clipped a male flower and rubbed it into the female.  On the Cukes i used a vibrating toothbrush.  All with poor results. We can't compete with the diligence and timelyness of thousands of bees.

 

Homefire

[Patrick Fenton]

They were started the first of May.  Only male blossoms.... No female.

Homefire said:

Hi Patrick,

When were they started?  Could low autumn light be slowing them down?

 

I tried hand pollinating Zuccini and Cukes in the green house cuz no bees came in.  I clipped a male flower and rubbed it into the female.  On the Cukes i used a vibrating toothbrush.  All with poor results. 

 

Homefire

[TCLynx]

yep definitely time to look up some squash and zucchini blossom recipes.