Why is my squash and zucchini plant only producing male flowers

In this months Q&A I give you answers as to why you sometimes only get male flowers on your squash or pumpkin plant. I also share with you some of the things you can do to bring on the female flowers to start getting a harvest.
Video Timeline:
00:00 - Introduction to only make squash + pumpkin flowers
01:27 - Why your squash / pumpkin plant is only producing make flowers
07:52 - How to get your squash / pumpkin plant to get more female flowers
The cucurbit family is large and consists of many different types of varieties. Most commonly those varieties are grouped into squash, pumpkin and cucumber. For the sake of today's video we are looking at squash and pumpkin plants and how they quite often only produce male flowers.
As a high level summary, squash or pumpkin plants will only product male flowers when:
1. They are still very young plants that immature in their ability to support the production of female plants with manure fruit
2. The environmental factors are on opposite extremes, causing the plant to withdraw energy being spent on fruit and female flower production, to supporting plant health and growth. These include heat, cold and watering
3. Fertilising, or more specifically, very high nitrogen fertilising or growing environments
For more updates and info visit my website - my-sustainability-journey.com/
For more updates on my journey please follow my Facebook and Instagram pages:
- / mysustainabilityjourneyza
- / my_sustainability_jour...
To see the Talborne Organics range of fertilisers click here - www.talborne.co.za
To view the Atlantic Fertilisers range of products click here - atlanticfertilisers.co.za
Music credit: bensound.com
#pumpkinflowers #squashflowers #maleflowers

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Do you have any questions about growing squash or pumpkins, flowering and fruiting? Let me know your experiences 🌱

[@saponify6677]

Nature is amazing. The early male flowers also attracts pollinators and "train" them were the food is, and by the time female flowers appear there are enough pollinators around for nature to take it's course.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Absolutely amazing, isn't it 🌱💚

[@lazygardens]

Which means that almost anything you do will "fix" the problem and make female flowers show up because you don't have a problem!

[@joeearley3351]

It's important to plant flowers near your garden that attract pollinators and don't water too much when they are doing their thing use more soaker hoses I don't like to get the garden plants wet because of the flowers are delicate and subject to rot. Water in the early morning a little this attracts butterflies especially flowers. Farmers have to have pollinators too many have beehives.

[@wordupezine7956]

Finally found a SA, and even more specific, a Cape Town gardener! Now I know the advice will be actionable.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yay, thank you so much and I am so glad I am able to help out locals also trying to grow more of their own food and live more sustainably. Looking forward to sharing lots more local content and learnings 🌻

[@formation1now517]

Of all the gardening videos I have watched - yours is the only one I have seen address this situation so clearly!!! Great information! Thanks - your new subscriber here!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Wow, thank you so much. Such kind words 💚 I'm so glad to hear you got value out of watching this video and hopefully there is lots more value coming your way 🌻

[@kathyfry1821]

YaY!!!A South African gardener at last!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yay 😁 hopefully you can get some value from my learnings and local experiences 🇿🇦

[@user-vv7ci1hj2l]

Perfect explanation! Thank you!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yay, I'm so glad it helped you out and thanks for leaving your thoughts 💚 Hope you get(ting) some decent harvests this year! 🌻

[@susanpharr6809]

Thank you for a wealth of guidance! Although I grow in a northern zone, your rich menu of suggestions for squash, pumpkins and the like is so valuable right now!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh wow, thank you so much for your lovely feedback 💚 I'm so glad you found value in watching this video and it helped you with your growing season 🌻

[@grimeymeliver9575]

Thank you from Texas USA! GREAT INFORMATION!!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Wow, thanks so much for the compliment and the comment! I hope you are enjoying your summer and getting great harvests 🌻

[@grimeymeliver9575]

@@MySustainabilityJourney Well, some bumpy roads but, it is producing! Well done channel sir!!!

[@criptofinanzas1117]

I live in California now, but we'll be moving to Central America, so your experience will be applicable to my future gardening down there. Thanks.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yaaaay, I'm so glad to hear this video will help you out in you gardening journey down the line and thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment. Wishing you all the best for the move and happy growing in your new climate 🌻

[@forrestdoody2059]

Great video !!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Wow, thanks so much 💚

[@meiinbudapest751]

Very informative, thanks! Me being the first time squash planter this is a real help. Especially I have been wondering if it is at the right corner of the garden. Hungarian sun (continental) is brutal too. I'll keep my plants where they are and change the way I water it and see what happens. Thanks again!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Hey Mei, how exciting this being the first time growing squash 💚 They can handle the harshest of sun as long as they stay hydrated. They will also droop and whilt very quickly if the doubt have what they need. Wishing you an abundant harvest 🌻

[@whatever-ql5ns]

Excelllent. Really helped me.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, that's great to hear and I'm so glad this video helped you out 🌻

[@MsLaurieWatts]

Thank you!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

It is only a pleasure and I'm glad you found value in watching this video 🌻🌻🌻

[@garden--23]

Awesome

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thank you 🌻

[@lindawoody8501]

Good to know. I took out a Crookneck Squash plant that only bore flowers while the next to it plant Zucchini bore fruit. Both were in different side by side pots with same bagged compost and soil mix. Both got same fertilizer.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

I'm glad you managed to get some value from watching this video! Yeah, I always recommend having multiple varieties around so you can cross pollinate and get more change of equal male and female flowers. If you want to save seed for planting next summer then you can't cross pollinate, but if you want it for eating only then that's a fail-safe way of growing squash 🌻

[@limaethan1113]

I am from India so one can imagine the condition of my pumpkin plant from the heat. Thanks, very useful source.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thanks for the great comment Lima 🌻

[@Cozmo544]

You explained perfectly why my zucchini plants are producing male flowers only. You mentioned a balanced fertilizer and I’m just wondering how much bonemeal I can give each plant? TYIA.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, thank you very much and I'm so glad you got value out of watching this video 💚 I add half a handful (probably half a cup) of bone meal when I feel I need to add and then just roughly scratch it in with my hands. Give it a good watering to get rid of smells and to soak in. I hope this helps 🌻

[@lindag9975]

Thanks! I spent time in Cape Town for work and love it there. So beautiful. I live in the US, currently in the Arizona low desert but have lived in Southern California, also a Mediterranean climate and about the same distance from the Equator as Cape Town.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, that's so cool and I am really happy that you enjoyed your stay here because it really is a beautiful place 💚 I am glad you managed to get some value out of watching this video and I hope you have massive harvests this summer 🌻

[@kimhefler]

I live in Nova Scotia ,Canada. My daughter livesFish Hoek South Africa. She and her husband are gardeners. Thankyou for the info because I have so many male flowers on my squash and zucchini. I will try your suggestions.😊

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh wow, thank you for leaving my a comment from the other side of the world 💚 That's awesome that your daughter is just down the road and that she loves gardening so much. Makes me so happy to hear this! I am also thrilled to her my video helped you out and here's to hoping my future content continues to add value for you 🌻

[@SirSkippy87]

I’m having the opposite issue, my female butternut squash flowers are maturing first with no male flowers for me to pollinate them…

[@annayeboah2008]

Me too! This happened to me this year and last year. A gardener from the UK said he always grows them buy he has had the same problem this year and last year. I have male flower stems but there are no flowers yet. So i have been using pollen from other plants to pollinate the butternut, which means that I cant save those seeds. Not sure why this is happening. But i see i have one male flower about to bloom so I am happy

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment with your experience! Yes, I have also experienced that before and for this reason I never have standalone plants or only the same variety. Squash and pumpkin have not issues with cross pollinating, unless you re wanting to save seed that is true. If you don't then you can use any other male flower to pollinate if you only have females on a specific plant 🌻

[@climaxafrica2054]

Thank you. I planted Boerpampoene with lots of compost, bonemeal, and high N fertiliser. They grow agressive. Very few fruits. Most of female/small fruits just “died”. I think they were not pollinated. So I wanted to do “manual” pollination this morning, BUT then I could not find any female flowers - only a couple of very young females where the flower are still closed. We are having more than a week of 35C temperatures and going for another week. Plants are in FULL sun. So I will add bonemeal and N low fertiliser, wait for the temp to drop and hope for the best.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Great insights and feedback shared here, thank you! I think one of the problems came from the high N feed. That will promote leafy growth in favour of fruits so you will have a massive plant with huge leaves and little fruit. With temps of 35+ you are also going to have to mulch A LOT to keep the moisture consistent as they will also drop their fruits if they are heat stressed and mulching will help a lot. Sounds like you have a pretty solid plan, which is awesome and I really hope you get that wonderful harvest you are after 🌻

[@Thepokedek]

Oh one thing that just popped to my mind, my Italian neighbor would pick the male flowers and deep fry them and we would eat them.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh yes! It is a very well known delicacy that tastes amazing. Yum yum 🌻

[@sunflower6434]

Good pointers, especially regarding temperature, and what is a good a temperature range, compared to extreme heat.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thank you 💚 personally I have found that once temps start getting above 27 odd degrees Celsius then the plants start going into defensive mode, but also if the soil isn't moist enough which in turn also increases soil temp and that's really what you want to try and keep as low as possible 🌻

[@estherbuff7504]

It was interesting. Never thought of those reason. I have another question. How do you conquer the fruit fly? Many of my pumpkins start growing and when about 2 cm big fall off. Am in Pretoria area. Thanks

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

I am thrilled to hear found this video interesting and thanks for dropping me a comment 😀 That is a really good question and I have done a video on some preventative measure you can take which you can find here and that really work well - kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3i5eICOpKiVq68 Then, what you need to do is start VERY early in the season with fruit fly.pumpkin fly prevention. You need to get the product called Ceratrap from Inteligrow and get those out into the garden in early August. This way you catch the baby flies as they start to hatch. You then need to keep the traps topped up and hanging throughout the year (even winter) and in a season or 2 your garden will have significantly less fruit flies. Hope this helps 🌻

[@johnk5778]

Hey you can pick the male flowers clean out the inner parts so just use the yellow part add a egg some peppermint and or onion others herbs milk and beat like a thin pancake batter fry in a little olive oil spot with catsup enjoy

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh my word that sounds amazing!!! I need to give that a go and thank you for sharing 🌻

[@nancyzimmerman246]

Wonderful site. Is it possible to hand polinate Srawberries ? I recently purchased a revolving plant holder. Unfortunately, I live in a gated community that sprays for insects. Of course that eliminates the natural polinaters . .I am so bummed by that. Any information you can give will be greatly appreciated.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

It's amazing to hear that even with your challenges and restrictions you are still trying to make a plan 💚 Yes, you can 100% hand pollinate strawberries and the best way would be to take a small paintbrush and gently get pollen on it and brush each flower. All the different flowers' pollen should then mix to give you good cross pollination 🌻

[@soutpilaar]

I had this problem with the flowers this summer. I figured it was the heat that let only male flowers bloom. By the time it got cooler I had no male flowers and a lot of female flowers. So I had no haven't at all. This time I will make sure to plant them in the shadiest spot and not in full sun. Powdery mildew is also a pain. But it seems it attack only leaves and not fruit. So is it really bad? I just cut of the leaves.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Hey Heila, I have heard of this before where a squash or pumpkin only has male flowers but I have personally never seen or experienced this, so it's really interesting to me how this happens. I hope doesn't happen to you again! As for powdery mildew, you are correct in that it does not damage the fruits. It will damage the leaves and cause them to die off, but as long as there is new growth the plant will be fine so you removing infected leaves won't be too much of a problem 🌱

[@annburge291]

Learn how to make LAB Korean Natural Farming solution from rice water and milk. You remove the obvious mildew leaves and then spay the rest of the plant with LAB mixed one tsp to a litre of water. It changes the microflora on the leaves making it less desirable for mould. The mould spores come from the soil, so having covered soil with straw, wood chips, very old compost mulches helps. In my case, being in the desert, the dust blows in from the neighbours tilling their soil into dirt.

[@avrilfarrell8671]

How do you tell the difference between male and female flowers? One of my zucchini plants is fine and producing fruit but the other one, has dry dead leaves, flowers but no fruit... they are side by side.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Hey Avril, I have done a video on male and female flowers in depth and show quite clearly the difference, which might give you some valuable insights. As for the dead, dry leaves and no fruit with the plants being side by side, they is just super weird! I tend to not grow an squash side by side as they are hungry plants, but most certainly shouldn't die if planted next to each other.

[@amyjanegardner9908]

It's as if u know my problems and then do a video to help

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Haha, that's awesome to hear. Let's see what next week holds 😂🌱

[@sonnyamoran7383]

Just what I wanted to know. What fertilizer should I use? I have a general 10-10-10. Is that ok to use?

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah awesome so glad this video helped you. Yes, a balanced fertilizer like that is perfect! You could go even lower on the N but if you have that then your ant will love it 🌻

[@matiasishere1487]

Not ok if you want real food

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

@@matiasishere1487 out of interest sake, what do you mean by that?

[@matiasishere1487]

@@MySustainabilityJourney synthetic fertilizer equals synthetic foos

[@matiasishere1487]

@@MySustainabilityJourney Real food has to come from healthy living soil

[@talapeanutbutter4250]

My cucumber and yellow squash are doing great but my zucchini are producing only male flowers. I started all indoors and planted them in march. I live in north Florida, USA. Should I just wait? All organic

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Hey Tala, thanks for your comment and I'm so envious of you heading into summer as we head into winter! Yes, it is still very early days for you and it is very normal for them to only produce male flowers early on, so sit tight and play the waiting game for now. You could also: 1. Remove all the male flowers so the plant doesn't waste energy 2. Make sure you have a few other squash or zucchini plants and then you could cross and hand pollinate them. This isn't an issue, unless you wanted to save seed I hope this gives you some of the info you were searching for 🌱

[@talapeanutbutter4250]

@@MySustainabilityJourney - Thank you so much! I did remove some of the leaves as well as male flowers. I have have many bees that have been pollinating the other squash but with all the excess leaves, I was concerned about them pollinating the zucchini and some of the under leaves were getting white patches. Hence, removing leaves. BTW… my name’s Karen.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

@@talapeanutbutter4250 nice to e-meet you, Karen 😁 Yeah, powdery mildew is such a pain with the squash family so good call on removing the leaves! I hope your lady flowers come along soon and give you a bountiful harvest 🌻

[@talapeanutbutter4250]

@@MySustainabilityJourney I found two females last night as I was routing my drip tubing! The flowers are not open and are small, about the same size zucchini (1 inch). I don’t know if they’ll mature but we’ll see! Thanks again!

[@avakinzerochill]

​@talapeanutbutter4250 I am in north Florida and having this same issue. How long did it take for a female to appear? I planted in late Feb. The leaves are pretty and green, but only male flowers. I may have too much nitrogen in the soil.

[@me1747]

My five squash (zucchini) did well from seed and grew nicely for a few weeks. Then there was nothing at the base. Just looked like bare roots sticking out. The leaves looked ok, the male flowers are blooming. It is stunted at this point with bare stem from ground to longer stems with the male flower. I see no bugs. Never saw any zucchini at all. :( I can't find any pictures on the internet of anything like that.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Wow, this is a first I hear of this happening. That is seriously bizarre! For this reason I always plant multiple varieties so if one or more fail I have backups. Sorry to hear you struggled so this growing season 🌻

[@NurseyPooh]

Awwww…I just ripped out my plants! The weather had been uppers 90’s then pouring rain then powdery mildew…

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh no 😔 I hate that feeling but yes, I feel your pain! Summer heat combined with rains never play into the hands of squash and powdery mildew. I hope your next squash growing season is kinder 🌻

[@Ethan-qy5ji]

My pumpkin was producing female flower but before it opened the flower died

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yeah, this sometimes happens and it just means the plant is not yet ready to handle fruiting. It's very much like fruit trees dropping fruit 🌻

[@Ethan-qy5ji]

@@MySustainabilityJourney thank you

[@stcl29]

But my cucumber plant only produced female flowers 😢 ? What’s the reason ?

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Shame, so sorry to hear this ☹️ they are also in the cucurbit family so the same reasons would apply. My best advice is to plant a few different varieties and more plants than you think you need to ensure you always get a good balance of male and female flowers across all your plants 🌻

[@michaelfranks341]

Try Beit Alpha cucs with 90% being female flowers are perfectly fine because that variety doesn't need to be pollinated. Its why I grow Beit Alpha and party time cucumbers. 160 cucs off of four plants in 4 weeks

[@Mantras-and-Mystics]

​@@michaelfranks341 Hi! What temperature did you grow them at? Where I live it's about 50°F (10°C) at night and 74°F (23°C) during the day. Is this suitable for growing them? Thanks! 😊

[@amandaelaine2805]

Its funny, my summer squash zuccinis first flower was female. I had to get pollen from my yellow zucchini to pollinate it. Its now doing great and both female and females are showing up! Its produced at least 6 pounds already with more on the way!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yay, this is so awesome! Cross pollination is an incredible way nature accounts for ups and downs. So glad this worked for you as a cover until both the males and females showed up 🌻

[@karenm9748]

Why is my pumpkin plants only producing Female flowers?

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Hey Karen, thanks for your comment and that's a great question! Firstly, I would need to know if you are in the Northern or Southern Hemispheres as the seasons could influence things. That being said, I am assuming you are in the northern Hemisphere as you are growing them, so, what often happens is that the first flush of flowers are all female flowers. This isn't an issue as the male flowers will catch up. A great way to overcome this is to have different varieties of squash planted then you can cross pollinate. If you are wanting to save the seed then you shouldn't do this, but cross pollination will give you a perfect fruit. I hope this helps 🌻

[@catswambo9706]

No music pleeeeeeeezzz

[@catswambo9706]

Cannot watch to end because too irritating, sorry

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

You will be happy to know that I have removed music in all my recent videos 😀 That being said at the time of the comment this video had 5k+ views with 99.7% likes and this is the first mention of music being a struggle, but I hear you and take your feedback to heart, thank you 🌻

[@ourv9603]

SO, if my melon plants develop only male flowers, its, Gay? !

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Lol!

[@bobbydookhie7297]

Too long bud. Show effects. Show how it looks like. Show scientific data and supplements to use. Will help a lot.! Thanks

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll def take this into account for future videos. I'll have to skip the scientific evidence part as I'm not a scientist and 'science' and 'stats' are both pretty much bottomless pits if contradiction but I can 100% share stats from my own growing experiences 🌻