Squash blossoms shriveling BEFORE opening

elliephant 4/11/2011, 8:25 pm

Ok, so last year I found out that I needed to hand pollinate my squash blossoms, or the little fruit would shrivel up and die shortly after the flower opened and then closed again.

This year I have been faithful about doing that and have been rewarded with more squash already than I got all last year.

Until now. The blossoms have started shriveling BEFORE opening. Anyone know what's going on?

**camprn** 4/11/2011, 9:28 pm

I had that problem last year and never did figure out why... I'm sorry i cannot be any help, but I will be watching this post... thanks for asking Wink

elliephant 4/11/2011, 9:34 pm

Did it continue forever once it started, or did it come and go?

**camprn** 4/11/2011, 9:42 pm

I had maybe 2 dozen fruit off of 6 plants, summer squash and zukes, then it got really hot and really dry (for 7 weeks) and then the blossom failure began. I hand pollinated what I could and sometimes the fruit would begin but then failed. Then the PM (powdery mildew) began and just kinda threw in the towel, chocked it up to fate and looked forward to next season. Sad

i didn't fin a specific answer here but its a good link
http://www.michellesgarden.com/Main/Pests/squash.shtml

dizzygardener 4/12/2011, 12:36 am

Here's a decent article on Squash Blossom drop: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/sqblossomdrop.html

Whenever female blossoms drop (on most any plant) it usually comes down to one of two things. Either something is going wrong with pollination, or there have been wild temperature swings.

elliephant 4/12/2011, 11:27 am

Well, the plants are healthy (for now), so probably just the heat. It was 96 for 4 days in a row, then 94 yesterday. We've spiked higher, but this was the longest stretch of high temps in a row. Really not liking this earlier-than-normal heat, especially after a warmer-than-normal winter.

ETA: Should be cooler today and take a few days to warm all the way back up, so we'll see if the situation improves.

**camprn** 4/12/2011, 4:08 pm

Fingers crossed for better weather!!! Very Happy

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Squash blossoms shriveling BEFORE opening

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