Shouldn't my plants be producing now???

I planted all of my seeds outdoors in mid-May (I'm in central VA). All of them have come up beautifully, but nothing has produced anything. Well, I guess the carrots are doing well (I'll be harvesting a square of baby carrots next week), but that's it. All of my plants have had flowers on them, and still have flowers, but nothing seems to become a fruit. I have tomatoes, yellow squash, cantaloupe, okra, and cucumbers. In fact, the okra packet said it should be 5' high, but it's only grown 5"! I did a google search and read so many different things - not enough water, too much water, need to pollinate the plants myself, spray sugar-water on the plants to attract bees, etc. I did open one of the flowers on a squash and saw that it was a male flower, but then the flower just came off in my hand. Not sure if that's supposed to happen or anything. I've never had a garden of any sort before, so I'm not really sure what I'm doing (or not doing that I should be). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I haven't seen any bees out in the garden at all, which is strange because the bees are all over my sunflowers in the front! Perhaps next year I'll stick some sunflowers back there to attract more bees?

i feel your pain.

i transplanted a lot my garden veggies in April and just recently started getting red tomatoes (had a few peppers and cucumbers)...and I'm in zone 6/7. We've had a nice, warm summer and I have drip irrigation.

In fact, I asked (on a different forum) about what the true meaning of "date to maturity"

mrburnett wrote:I planted all of my seeds outdoors in mid-May (I'm in central VA). All of them have come up beautifully, but nothing has produced anything. Well, I guess the carrots are doing well (I'll be harvesting a square of baby carrots next week), but that's it. All of my plants have had flowers on them, and still have flowers, but nothing seems to become a fruit. I have tomatoes, yellow squash, cantaloupe, okra, and cucumbers. In fact, the okra packet said it should be 5' high, but it's only grown 5"! I did a google search and read so many different things - not enough water, too much water, need to pollinate the plants myself, spray sugar-water on the plants to attract bees, etc. I did open one of the flowers on a squash and saw that it was a male flower, but then the flower just came off in my hand. Not sure if that's supposed to happen or anything. I've never had a garden of any sort before, so I'm not really sure what I'm doing (or not doing that I should be). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I haven't seen any bees out in the garden at all, which is strange because the bees are all over my sunflowers in the front! Perhaps next year I'll stick some sunflowers back there to attract more bees?

Try not to pay too much attention to the back of the seed packet as a new gardener. they do not put on there : depends on water, sun, bugs, bees, humidity, people, etc.
Yes, okra will eventually get to 5+ feet tall, but, that is at the end of the season. They will produce okra, even if they are 2 ft tall. Okra can be watered to keep it alive, but it requires heat more than water, don't mulch around it, let it get hot and dry and it will bloom.Okra plants can grow a foot per day when it is hot.
As far as what to do, each plant is different.
If tomato plants bloom, give the plant a mild shake to pollinate. Wind usually does this.

It just might not be time for fruit yet. I would say that maybe 10 weeks from mid may, would be in the next week or two.
Jo

I had this problem last year, which was my first year with my SFG. My plants were so tiny, and I hardly got any produce off of them. I only got a couple of zucchini all season, which should tell you something! I asked around and finally someone told me the plants might not be getting enough to eat. So I got out some miracle grow and fed them with it as an experiment, to see if it would help.

Sure enough, they started growing like crazy after that. It turns out the compost wasn't enough for my plants, most likely because I'd gotten an inferior kind or not enough variety. Despite being in farm country up here in western NY, I had a heck of a time finding anything but rotted cow manure to use.

I don't like using miracle grow in my garden, but until my barrel of compost is finish composting, I'll have to rely on it.

Hmmm....I'll try some liqui-feed this week. A lady at the farmer's market also suggested that when I told her what was going on. The cucumber plants are actually doing very well this week, considering all the heat we've had. I can see tiny little cucumbers starting to appear below the flowers! The tomatoes look like they've wilted a bit in the heat. But the okra seems better. In fact, I have 1 okra pod that I'll be picking next week. Yes, I'm going to fry up only the single pod, but it'll be my birthday and I love fried okra. Only wish I had more to go along with it!

mrburnett - I envy you your one pod of okra! I'm a southern gal who loves it, but didn't plant any this year. It's my first year for sfg and I only have 2 4X4 boxes. Okra takes up so much room, I didn't plant any in my sfg. I miss it!!!

Sherryeo - I absolutely love fried okra. My grandparents had it in their garden and always fried it up when we came to visit. It was the first plant I had in mind putting in the SFG. And I had to do the Clemson Spineless variety since my husband is a Clemson fan (even though we both went to South Carolina!).