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Author Topic: Crazy Squash  (Read 4025 times)

Offline Romahawk

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Crazy Squash
« on: July 09, 2007, 11:13:24 pm »
I have some squash plants with what appears to be a serious problem in my garden. The plants have been flowering for several weeks now but not one has set fruit yet. My hives are 50 feet or so away from them yet I have not seen a bee on any of  the plants. Some days the flowers have been opened wide and other days they seem to only open part of the way. Some are early squash plants and others are late squash that vine instead of bush like the early. Getting nervous now as I should have been seeing small fruit started by now. Any ideas or solutions?
Never let your education interfere with your learning" --Samuel Clemens

Offline reinbeau

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2007, 08:09:11 am »
Well, hopefully pollination isn't a problem!  :shock:

How hot is it where you are?

Offline Romahawk

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2007, 11:05:53 am »
Well, hopefully pollination isn't a problem!  :shock:

How hot is it where you are?

The temperatures around here have been a bit below normal since April. Yesterday it turned really hot and climbed up into the mid 90's supposed to be that way again today and then back down to the 70's in the day time and mid 60's at night.

Maybe I should fire the head of pollination for each hive, the neighbors about a mile down the road have all kinds of small fruit on their plants.  :-D
Never let your education interfere with your learning" --Samuel Clemens

Offline Cindi

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2007, 11:09:15 am »
Romahawk.  Be patient.  Sometimes it takes a fair long time for the blossoms to turn to the fruit.  Squash plants have male and female flowers.  The male flowers form firstly and then along come the female.  You will soon be seeing the female flowers that will have the fruit showing at the base of the flower.

The flowers that you see that are half shut or open are natural.  The half shut ones are probably ones that will fully open by the end of the day or are the opposite, have been open, but are now withering.

Be patient.  I would see no reason why the plants would not set forth their fruit, in their own due time, we cannot hurry Mother Nature.  I have cucumbers, watermelons, muskmellons, pumpkins that have been flowering now for a couple of weeks, they are not producing any fruit yet, it takes time.  So don't worry, be happy.  Have a wonderful day, full of patience.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2007, 01:32:29 pm »
My pumpking flowers are wide open in the morning.  I don't usually see too many honeybees, mostly the smaller black native pollinators.  They will all huddle in the flowers, then the flowers close and they have to chew their way out the next day.  It is neat picking a nice closed flower that buzzes.

And they do take a sometimes alarming amount of time to set fruit as Cindi said.  They have 3 months yet to grow fruit.
Rick

Offline Romahawk

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2007, 08:38:50 pm »
Quote
Romahawk.  Be patient.  Sometimes it takes a fair long time for the blossoms to turn to the fruit.  Squash plants have male and female flowers.  The male flowers form firstly and then along come the female.  You will soon be seeing the female flowers that will have the fruit showing at the base of the flower.

Seems as though you may be right Cindi, as I was walking through the squash patch I took a good look at the flowers this time and saw that they are all male so I guess I was in to much of a hurry to get some new tender Zuks in the frying pan and wasn't paying attention.  :-D
Never let your education interfere with your learning" --Samuel Clemens

Offline Cindi

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2007, 11:28:35 am »
OK fellow squash growers.  You have never in your life tried anything until you pick the young tender squash flowers and sautee them in butter, gently.  Holy crow, you are in for a taste that will twizzle your whiskers (if you have them, lol).

I grow spaghetti, butternut squash and pumpkins and lots of them.  I have no fear of taking too many blossoms to fry in the pan.  I find that the butternut squash blossoms have by far the most wonderful of the blossom flavour.  Over past years I have planted many different cultivars of squash and that is why I plant so many butternut squash, so I can be a flower eater.

I pick the blossoms before they are fully open, sometimes only just beginning to open.  By the time I am ready to fry them (usually by suppertime), the blossoms are open.  Eeeh gads!!!!!  Just wait until you try this tasty little culinary treat. 

It does not hurt the squash plants to take a few blossoms or a good many blossoms.  Just don't take all of them (come on now, don't be greedy  :evil:).  Squash is like many other vegies and flowers, the more you pick the more they grow.

Enjoy your squash blossoms, and remember you can pretend that you are the most famous gourmet cook in the world.  Squash blossoms fetch a huge price in the market around our Lower Mainland.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life, and eat your vegies  :) Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2007, 09:39:24 am »
i sell squash blossoms at the farmers market and they sell very well @ 50 cents each. they are also good stuffed with ricotta cheese and then fried. i mix the ricotta cheese with fresh chopped up basil. i grow costata romenesca, a type of zucchini, for the blossoms which are very big. i take all the male blossoms early in the morning. if you pick them and then they wilt after a while, refrigeration perks them right back up. they appear to be somewhat fragile but they really hold up to handling.

Offline Cindi

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2007, 10:43:25 am »
randydrivesabus.  Now that is fully cool.  One thing that I have noticed about the squash buds is that, even if they are picked closed, that they continue to open up.  Do you find that?  Ever found a way that prevents that, or is that a good thing when you take them to market?  Fifty cents each, that is amazing, bet you could turn a good dollar selling them for surely, yeah!!!!!  I think that I will try to stuff some soon, sounds like a delicious culinary treat, yeah!!!  Best of this beautiful day.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: Crazy Squash
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2007, 11:11:00 am »
people like to see them opened....more dazzle. and a lot of people get excited over seeing them and they make for great conversations with customers when i try to describe how to fix them. but i'm quick to point out how much work in the kitchen it is to prepare them the way i described.
i haven't noticed whether they change from opened to closed or vice versa after being picked...i'm not a real observant type (so says my wife). i sell them mostly as an attractant to my booth but yeah...50 cents a pop ain't too bad.

 

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