The Butternut, Pink Banana, and Table Queen Acorn Squash has had several weeks of robust growth. Vines burst through the netting that covers my raised beds, climbing and unfurling 15-inch-wide leaves of deep green, the vines healthy with flowering female fruit.
But the squash that grew rapidly to the size of a sneaker have all but stopped, the growth arrested by something, many of them shriveling and softening and slipping off the vine. It’s not a total loss. There are several massive Pink Banana Squash that increase in size daily. But our plans for Butternut Soup in the winter and the clipped recipes now seem presumptuous.
Of most concern is the lack of female fruit to replace what has been lost. In squash these females have big flowers attached to perfect miniatures of the mature fruit, basically an ovary, on a short stem. As of now, there’s nothing but fruitless male flowers, high on their slender stalks. They stand tall and bloom, attracting hordes of pleasantly surprised bees with their out-of-season pollen. Damn happy bees.
The most likely culprit, as far as I can tell from my reading, is insufficient pollination — which seems an odd problem for the sausage fests that are my raised garden beds. This would never happen on a college campus. Insufficient pollination can result in deformed fruits or fruits that grow a bit then die off, and it can occur even if there seems to be an ample pollinator presence (the damn happy bees). Apparently the number of pollinators present can affect the ultimate size of the mature fruit, too.
What does this mean for me?
At any time over the next several weeks you may find me out in the garden, hand-pollinating the squash. This can be done by picking male flowers, peeling the petals back, and then rubbing the exposed pollen over the female stigma. Another, less aggressively sexual method would be to use a small artist’s paint brush to pick up some male pollen and then dust the female. You have to be an attentive hand-pollinator, though. The flowers open in the morning and are receptive for only one day.
The male squash flowers just can’t get it done. I guess it can happen to anybody.
“The male squash flowers just can’t get it done. I guess it can happen to anybody.” LOL Well done Jason
Scott
Too funny! My winter squash dudes couldn’t get it done either
Love the photo and love the writing. Awesome post. And who knew that there are different genders of squash flowers. I might join you in some pollination. Of flowers. Squash flowers. In my yard. This just seems to be getting worse…
Is there such thing as Butternut Viagra? Maybe if you show them some pictures of mature squash fruit from the Sunset Garden book. Although you might be putting too much pressure on them to perform.
Thanks. Too bad about your winter squash. I guess we’ll have to get more involved in the mating processes of squash — more so than we ever imagined.
Thanks! Perhaps we should stick to pollinating our own flowers. For propriety’s sake. Although, I do feel like some kind of line has already been crossed …
Awesome. I tried to work some kind of play on Viagra in there, but it didn’t pan out in the drafting. Limp stems aren’t really the problem. It’s more of a delivery thing.
Sometimes the guys just need a little help, if the bees can’t do it. I won’t find you silly out there early rubbing the pollen between blooms. Go for it.
Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog awhile back. Are we awesome at naming blogs or what? I thought I’d answer your queries here as I took such a long break that my readership is probably back down to 6. You asked about the purple carrots. They were Purple Haze and I got them here http://www.territorialseed.com/product/614/s. The potting mix I used was about half aged compost and half potting soil from the store. It was pretty light and fluffy. Anyway, I really like your blog. I have had the too many dudes problem as well, ahem, I mean my squash plants have. I ended up stir frying a bunch of the flowers because it never occurred to me to hand pollinate.
Thanks for the info. That seed source is great. I will definitely be checking out some of their stock for the spring.
There have been weirder happenings in the garden than a little “dude assistance” I’m sure. That must be what happened to my squash – that and the long period of no rain could have contributed. I only have two butternut. Plenty of acorn though. It’s not my favorite, so it stands to reason I would have the most of it.
[...] I wrote a few weeks ago about the preponderance of male flowers in my winter squash as the culprit behind the failure my cucurbits to fruit, I had also spent some [...]