my zucchini is small and the blossom fell off....is it done growing?

Question

i've four plants and only one has sprouted females so far. my biggest zucchini plant has two females with the fruit growing, but, well one of them almost seems to have stopped growing. the one that bloomed second has out grew the one that bloomed first...and the on the one that bloomed first, the blossom has fallen off of it. does that mean that it's done growing? i didn't get a chance to cross pollinate the one that fell off becase it fell off before it opened. the piece of fruit is very small less than two inches i believe....is it done growing?

also, the zucchini plants have a lot of leaves. i chop the ones that turn yellow off but should i chop off some green ones too? it almost seems like it's too crowded to sprout the fruit. i realize the leaves are supposed to be guarding the fruits from sun damage but is there ever such thing as too many leaves?

Answer 1

Male and female flowers are found on the same squash plant. The male flowers will appear well before the female flowers and also in far greater numbers. In periods of hot weather the male flowers are more numerous. That's why you only found 2 females so far. When they get a cool spell, the female population will catch up.

As you know, at the bottom of the blossom of a female is a tiny vegetable or fruit (ovary). After the female flower is pollinated, the ovary will develop & continue to grow into a zucchini. IF your flower was NOT fertilized its fruit (ovary) will wither and die. It's still possible your plant might have been pollinated by an insect. So you'll just have to wait & see.

Male flowers are short lived. They will open up before dawn and will close completely by mid-morning.

The male flowers possess both pollen and nectar, the female flowers only nectar. If the plants are watered from overhead early in the day, that may prevent all further pollination for that day. Everything gets washed off of the short-lived male flowers. Replacement flowers do not open then until the following morning. So don't water in the morning if you want to give your plants optimum opportunity to pollinate. Having a lot of rain early in the day doesn't help pollination either, & bees are not active when it rains.

Keep the green leaves on the plants.

P.S. Thought you'd enjoy the "pumpkin" article, since they're in the same "family" as zukes. LOL

Answer 2

The might be male flowers. Boys don't make fruit, just pollen for the girls. The females have the little bulb at the back side of the flower. Also if it is too hot, the pollen dries before it gets to the female flower (pollinating insects). You might be the bee and take a small paint brush and remove the pollen from the boy flowers and tickle the pistil of the female flower with the pollen laden brush.

Answer 3

Small Zucchini

Answer 4

The best way to grow zukes is to water the plant and then leave it alone. Don't cut leaves off. The plant needs no help except water. As for the zukes themselves, the flowers will fall off as you said they did. The zuke will continue growing. The time to pick is when they are about 7-9 inches long. The bigger they get, the woodier they taste.

Answer 5

Fruits are described as ripened flower ovaries which produce seeds.

Answer 6

like both, fruits: berries, oranges, pears, peaches, dragonfruit, pomegranate.... Vegetables: CUCUMBERS, bok choy, green beans, broccoli,.... My spouse and i guess the two are great.