Released August 13, 2009
WICHITA, Kan. – Home gardeners who choose easy-to-grow squash and cucumbers often call a Kansas State University Research and Extension office early in the summer to ask why squash plants have “tons of flowers, but no squash.”
“Vine crops produce separate male and female flowers on the same plant, but only the female flower will produce a squash or cucumber,” said Rebecca McMahon, Extension horticulture agent in Sedgwick County, Kan.
As the plants start blooming in the spring or early summer, they usually put on male flowers that have a straight stem and no fruit first, McMahon said.
“Be patient. Soon, you’ll have female flowers with a swollen, miniature fruit (a tiny squash or cucumber) behind the flower – and more cucumbers and squash than you’ll know what to do with,” McMahon said.
More information is available on the K-State Research and Extension Web site at “Cucumbers and Melons” (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf668.pdf) and for squash at http://www.hfrr.ksu.edu/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=1817.
More information also is available at county or district Extension offices and on Extension Web sites: http://www.ksre.ksu.edu (click on publications), http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/horticulture and http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/news.
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http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/ksrenews/story/briefs081309.aspx
Editor: Elaine Edwards, elainee@ksu.edu
