Why do my zucchin plants keep flowering and never get any zucchini on them?

Question

Why do my zucchin plants keep flowering and never get any zucchini on them?

Answer 1

i'm pretty sure you need to pinch off the flowers before it will bear fruit (in this case, vegetables).  same is true for tomatoes.  someone correct me if i'm wrong.  this is how we've done it for generations in my family.

Answer 2

i have never heard of pinching off the flower on any vegetable plant, and mine have always produced vegetables, i know that if you use a fertilizer BEFORE the plant produces the flower, they usually will not produce any vegetables.i have done that  before i knew any better and it ruined my garden.

Answer 3

Zucchini and all squash plants produce 2 types of flowers,  males and females.  Only the female blossoms will bear fruit.  There are not male and female plants,  each plant will produce both types of flower.   My zucchini seems to make male flowers first and then starts making female flowers.  Be patient.  You will soon have more zucchini than you know what to do with.

Answer 4

Although there may be other reasons for zucchini plants not getting any zucchini, it's most likely that they just aren't getting pollinated.

If you examine the flowers closely & you see what looks like a little squash on it, you're actually seeing an ovary on a female flower...and something has caused  it not to develop properly & it died off.

If you don't see those little ovaries...then you have male flowers which can't produce. Early in the season the male flowers usually appear before the female flowers appear on the plant.

Take a look:

http://www.pollinator.com/squash.htm

Male flowers appear a week or two before the female flowers.  Also, in periods of hot weather, the male flowers are far more numerous & the few female flowers that you do find may need help in getting pollinated. Sometimes there aren't enough bees or other pollinating insects around to pollinate the flowers.

http://www.kokopelli-seed-foundation.com...

http://www.gardenguides.com/plants/info/...

Make sure you don't water overhead early in the morning so the male flowers can have a chance to pollinate the female flowers.Male flowers are short lived.  The flowers will open up before dawn and will close completely by mid-morning.The male flowers possess both pollen and nectar, the female flowers only nectar. If the plants are watered from overhead early in the day, that may prevent all further pollination for that day. Everything gets washed off of the short-lived male flowers. Replacement flowers do not open then until the following morning.Pollination needs to be made to all segments of the female flower. This should be done by 10 a.m. because pollination carried out later than the end of the morning during warm weather has very little chance of success because the pollen will have heated up and fermented and will no longer be viable.

You should see the squash enlarge the day or two after pollination & it should be ready to pick in  3-4 days...unless your plant has squash bugs that intefer with the process by sucking the juices out of the developing squash.

This video shows how to hand pollinate your zucchini:

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/ipm/AgWeb/videos...

Also, there can be other reasons why blossoms don't set fruit & fall off. Sometimes, even if they were pollinated... the blossoms can  abort from the stress of high day and night time temperatures.  Extreme temperatures during flowering... below 55 degrees or above 85 degrees... can reduce fruit set.

Plant disease, & even too much nitrogen can also cause poor fruit set.  Too much shade or not enough light could have been a problem.

After all these considerations, it seems most likely that your plants failed to develop zucchini this early in the season because the female flowers (if you had any) didn't get pollinated. When you get more female flowers & enough pollinators, you should see your plants producing.

Good luck! Enjoy the video :) Hope it helps.

Answer 5

Check your PH level in the soil.Get a home test kit and check the soil.If the Ph level is to high or to low you will not ever get any zucchini.