Lots of Blooms but no Squash? This might be the problem!

Is your squash nice and healthy and puts out tons of blooms but there are no fruits forming? Don't worry too much! This happens often with squash and it may be just a simple wait and see solution! Squash produces separate male and female flowers. If you don't have both male and female flowers you can't have pollinated flowers for squash production.

Female flowers of squash, zucchini, and other cucurbits will have a "mini-fruit" just underneath the flower. That's the ovary. If it is just a stem then you have a male flower. Male flowers almost always form first to prepare pollinators for the presence of the squash plant. It's designed to attract them to the squash plant to improve pollination.

Squash flowers are edible so if you have an abundance of male flowers and no female flowers you have harvest them and eat them while you are waiting for more flowers to form. I recommend planting several plants (2 to 3 at least) to have a strong chance of pollination.

And don't forget you can always pollinate your squash flowers yourself!

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:15 Male vs. Female Flowers
2:30 The Importance of Pollination
4:00 Hand Pollination Techniques
5:30 Additional Tips for Fruit Set

Squash Videos from Growing The Home Garden:

Dave is the gardener behind Growing The Home Garden, a blog he started in 2007. Through his blog he has discussed all kinds of garden subjects including vegetable gardening, raised beds, and plant propagation.

[randymeeks]

Wow thank you so much!!!! I have 28 males and no females...It's like the first ever Comic-Con!

[kristen]

You are the first person I've heard give this advice. This has been a chronic problem for me for years! Thank you so much!

[sueDcdn]

Thank you so much for a simple video showing the producing flowers that create squash. My first time growing and this was so helpful.

[TraceyFawcett]

Thanks for the simple answer - focused straight in on the plant and the issue I wanted to find out about. Too many videos on YouTube, whilst great (and of course I'm grateful for the info), are too long-winded & just as the bit you need to watch comes on, it gets interrupted by bloody adverts!! So thank you again for this interesting, informative, and too the point video!

[donnahernandez]

I can’t wait to try this! I’ve only had 2 zucchini this entire season since my plant seems to produce a lot of male flowers and hardly any female flowers. I hope this fixes the issue

[MyraDarville]

Thank you so much for this video. It answered my question about my squash bloom drop because it thought it was a pollination problem. Thanks again best of luck growing.

[homesteadingwithapurpose]

Thank you for all this information. This is what’s happening to us this year. It’s our first year gardening after many years of not gardening after my dad and granny passed.

[titusmac]

Thank you for showing the difference between the male and female flower. I needed that info.

[jwhite]

You talked to me at the best time Thanks so much!

[robinrummel]

Perfect timing even though a couple years ago, I just saw it tonight! Earlier today I was looking at my honeynut squash plants and only saw male blooms. I never had that happen before so wasn't sure why it happened or what to do about it. Tomorrow I'll cut off about half the male blooms and hopefully some female blooms will develop. Thank you very much for this video! 👍💕😀

[bridgetr.]

Thank you SO much!! I just ran outside to look and have 1 female on each of my 6 plants... fingers crossed! Thanks again, very well explained.

[jerrycallender]

I'm in Tucson for the past 8 months and determined to grow a few vegetables.


With our uncertain 'soil', I cut 22" sections of 4" PVC pipe, dug them down 'bout 4", filled the tube with
compost and soil, and can easily water and the roots have lots of room and they get full sun.


The tomatoes are going crazy, and lots of blossoms but no fruit on my Black Beauty Zucchini plant.


Glad I looked you up. After seeing your explanation, I went back for a closer look - knowing now what
to look for - and sure enough, there are female flowers forming.


THANKS!!!

[suemar]

This was a big help. Last year was my first year of having literally no fruit--and I guess this was the problem.
I had plenty of flowers, plenty of bees, but no zukes. Thank you for the info!

[pennybenton]

I've had a garden for over 20 years and never knew this!! I'm blessed with numerous zucchini and yellow crook neck squash, however my neighbor gets only a few. I'll share this info with her. Thank you!! Also I grow a row of zinnias in my garden, it helps with pollination, tons of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Blessings to you

[stevepethel]

Excellent video and explanation...God bless you and I love the beautiful plants with birds singing songs

[POOCHIESCLOSET]

Thanks Dave. I'm gonna give this a try. I have beautiful huge flowers but absolutely NO squash and my harvest date is just around the corner.

[JL-vwnu]

Thank you so much!! I've been frustrated this season with all my flowers falling off. I thought I was having a pollination issue and started manually pollinating every blossom - couldn't figure out what was happening. After watching this I inspected my plants and found that 99% of the blossoms were male and I could only find two female flowers. I've gone ahead and prune and am hoping this stimulates more female growth. Thank you!

[lindadaigle]

Thank you! Maybe that’s why my father picked the flowers and my mother had to flour and fry them. NO WASTE!

[comeknitrelaxandchat]

Thanks for sharing the gardening information. Very helpful. 😉

[ashyanaharricharran]

Thanks so much. This is very informative. I have seen ants on my zucchini plants, but I had no idea what it's for so I kept straying water to wash away it. Now i know this, I will not chase them away.