I don't know why but this summer, many of our female cucurbits are very shy maiden. The male and female timing bloom does not synchronous with each other. When the male bloom, not a single female bloom to pollinate. The female are so late bloomer this summer, they bloom when the males have tired waiting. The pollinator (mainly me) will be sighing a lot waiting for the moment when both male and female are blooming.Button squash produce many females but I had to harvest when they are small in size sometimes because I knew they were not pollinated.
I was so excited when my first angled luffa female flower bloom. But no male flower blooming in sights.As I thought, no angled luffa heading to our kitchen.
The zucchinies too play with my feelings like button squash. Sometimes the cucumbers and melons also having a difficult time too synchronous. But they still managed to see each other sometime.
21 comments:
It's too bad your luffa flowers aren't getting along with each other! Maybe you can play matchmaker... does it work to pick a male flower and refrigerate it until the females open?
I too tried my hand for the first time at matchmaking for my Japanese cucumber but not successful, maybe didnt do it correctly. But on their own, only manage to have one deformed cucumber! Now waiting the seeds to germinate for another session of cucumber.
Oh dear! Problems with shy ladies!
In Greece we eat the zucchinies flowers, fries or stuffed.
matchmaker?hehe bunyinya lucu ingatkan manusia je kena ada matchmaker tapi rupanya pokok sayur sayuran pun kena ada matchmaker juga :)Cm kena banyak belajar dari Diana ni.Dulu pernah tanam petola dengan pokoknya sangat subur dan berbunga dgn lebat tapi tiada buah.
We had an equally frustrating time with our summer squash plants too! Many of the fruit died off because it wasn't properly pollinated.
I know - sometimes it's murder waiting for those females to come along. Like Ellada commented, this year I took some of the males, stuffed them with breadcrumbs and cheese, and fried them - delicious.
I had the same problem with my Zuchinni and Butternut pumpkin too. When there are so many males around not a single female bloom. When there is a female around there is hardly any male. Does this got to do with the weather or something? Lucky me I managed to get one pair pollinated the other day and it is getting really huge. Will post about it soon!
This is the real problem, and happens in our life:
A female may not meet her prince..
I've tried in the past cross pollinating different types of cucurbits when one plant has only male or female flowers, I think if they are closely related enough it works well. Of course the fruit are no good for saving seed but taste just as good. :)
Same here, with the zucchini...I have only had one pollinated one so far. I have been picking the little unpollinated ones though.
Eliza~ That is a neat experiment to try thanks for the tips.
p3chandan~ Hope your new batch of cucumbers will provide you with abundant harvest.
Sue~The girls are so shy.
Ellada~ I will try to that as well since I can't get the big ones.
CikManggis~ Mungkin si Lebah masa tu tengah bercuti;-).
Meemsnyc~I am having the same problem as well.
JGH~Sounds delicious. Better to eat them then let them wilt.
Hafiz~ I read sometime ago that when the day is getting longer it will trigger the cucurbit plant to produce only male flowers. Hopefully when the day get shorter we have more females. If what the theory in that book can be take account for.
Rainfield61~ A female can find a frog and turn it into a prince.
Kat~ That is such a fantastic idea. Since it will be a long way to go to save the seeds since we are in mid-summer. Still have time to save the seeds in autumn. I will give it a go.
Hazel~ When I read gardening book. It always say it is so easy to grow them. But not written there pollination will be tricky.
Do you get bumble bees in your garden? They seem to work much harder at pollinating than regular bees.
I am sure that both guys and girls will show up together when the time is right. I worry about same thing every year, but I always get enough veggies somehow.
The button squash... looks attractive... we had similar problems with few bees last summer too...
Even the bees deserted you? How about other insects?
You may want to grow more of them so that some of them will get their timing right.
Too bad you are having a hard time, but I am sure a couple of them will set. Good luck!
I hope those shy guys and girls get their schedules in sync soon!!
Ana~ So sad no bees buzzing around at the moment. The weather a bit hot for them I think.
Lrong~ I have to think of more summer-dry loving flowers to grow in the garden to help the bees.
One~ Well the white cabbage butterfly make an appearance sometimes. Even the worm goes much deeper into the soil to cool themselves.Some of them I planted a new batch for autumn in case the summer heat is too much for the oldies.
Fer~Only one variety has not produce, but hopefully soon it will.
Holly~The courting seems take a bit longer than usual this time around.
This is probably what it was like for us Humans before Computer Dating took over!
Mark Willis~ LOL. True but not that thrilling when you are only sitting in front of the computer.
I 'mate' them this morning and i think it is very fun to be a matchmaker haha. Hope you have many many timuns to bring to your kitchen!
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