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Re: Rotting squash and HEAT!!!

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Kim, 

I've also had that same problem.  For the past several years, and I've never 
found an answer for it.  No matter what I'm growing, pumpkins, squash (summer 
or winter), a number of the female flowers never fully develop.  The little 
female just sorta shrivels up and turns yellow and drops off.

A number of folks have told me that I need to hand pollinate, but the whole 
point is that the flower never developes to the point of opening.  I can have 
several baby females on the same vine and one or two will develop and open, 
and the rest just shrivel up before opening.  

I have searched the web, I have read through books, and I still haven't found 
out if this is normal, or if there is something wrong with the soil, or 
watering.  

Anyway, I've just sorta begun to "just live with it".  Even though it is very 
frustrating.

This year, instead of planting just a few pumpkins and squash around the 
perimiter of the square foot garden, we created an entire "pumpkin patch".  
It's about 20 x 20 and we brought in well composted horse manure, mixed it 
well with other compost, made "hills" of the stuff throughout the "patch" and 
planted several different varieties.  Guess what, the same old thing 
happened.  A large number of baby females never grow up to open their 
flowers.  They just shrivel up.  Also, we thought that if we planted lots, we 
might get more than just 8 zucchini (from 2 plants) and 2 pumpkins (from 4 
plants).  So far, we think we have about 4 pumpkins that have "taken" and 
we've been eating yellow squash till we are sick of it.  haha.

Denese - who is hoping that the pumpkin gods will be kind to her this year 
and allow a plentiful harvest.  ;-)
(near Cincinnati, zone 6a, almost zone 5)


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