Topic: No fruit of squashes

[Tiny Clanger]

this season, for the first time, several of my large pumpkin sized squashes have failed to produce any fruits.  They have a half plot to themselves and get plenty of manure to start the soil and water and feed through the growing time.  This year  they have not produced a singe fruit.  Marina di Choggia, Musquee de Provence, crown Prince not a fruit to show, just two blue hubbard .  Further down, the acorn squashes have done quite nicely.  Whats happened to the large ones? should I change seed provider?  They all got plenty of care.   

[saddad]

Mine have done well, the Etampes are some of the best a decade. Butternuts usually "evade" me but even have a decent sized one... first ever! Only my "Malabar Gourd/Shark's fin" are disappointing, all three plants have set two fruit, but they are much smaller than normal, that I do put down to the cool Summer.

[tricia]

It's been a funny old year for me too. Pink Banana produced only one 5kg fruit from 2 plants, nothing from the Potimarron, 6 absolutely enormous butternuts and  3 normal sized ones from 8 plants still on the vines where  dozens rotted after first appearing to have been pollinated. And now, in the last couple of weeks 5 new, really strong looking butternuts have appeared on 4 of the plants!

3 of the 5 Moonlight bean plants have suddenly taken on a new lease of life and are flowering like mad and the four outdoor beef tomato plants have produced a great crop of huge fruit. 

My only real failure has been sweet corn this year  -  half a dozen 5 inch cobs from 21 plants,  so nothing for the freezer this year, unfortunately 

Tricia 

[Paulh]

I think the timing of sowing and planting out, and the weather variations we had this year, have made a big difference.

I've had a very good year - 19 "Amoro" from five plants, two "Crown Prince" (one plant) and three "Black Futsu" (one plant). I sowed them in mid-April and planted them out in mid-May. The "Amoro" matures early and the "Crown Prince" were also ready with them in mid-August. I picked the "Black Futsu" last week, perhaps a little early.

I have about 12 large butternuts "Tiana" to harvest from three plants (same sowing and planting dates). They are colouring but the vines are still green.

They seemed to like the warmth and wet in July and August when other things were less happy.

[Tiny Clanger]

Thanks for replies. I think I must get them out earlier as suggested next time. Butternut did well. The Waltham were small, but Sweetmax standing 15" on the table. Got a half dozen of those. It's just the large squash that did not perform. Thanks all
X

[Paulh]

We're having to eat or give away most of the "Amoro" as they are beginning to deteriorate already. Luckily, there are plenty of willing recipients (well, it's a change from beans, courgettes and cucumbers!). I guess I didn't get the skins cured well enough, though I've got an idea that they didn't keep very well last time I grew that variety.

So, lots of squash roasted with onion and ginger, then the leftovers pureed for soup with ground cumin. A bit of a wintry menu when it's still mid-20s, but doesn't it taste good, especially with sausages.

[Vinlander]

I realise this thread wasn't started as celebrating excess fruit, but I'm sure a lot of people have found that the only other option is a glut (as in my motto).

I recommend grated raw squash as an ingredient in coleslaw and for really big fruits the only answer is making very big jars of kimchi (so much more efficient than freezing it). 

When cooking I find nutmeg really improves the flavour - whether roasted, mashed or even candied. And the same goes for other veg like swede or sweet potato - even onions.

I've mentioned before how squash and orange sweet potato together can remove blandness - though this combination only works its full 'magic' with people who find them bland separately.

If you can comment I'd love to know what proportion of the population find this combination a game-changer - so far I've only found a few people - though I've heard that it has a place in Libyan Jewish communities.

Does anyone know how to set up a poll?

Cheers.

[Deb P]

I had a lot of embryonic fruits fail and drop off this year, and ended up with 9 fruits from 8 plants!
The acorn and D’Etampes did the best but the Japanese squash didn’t do so well and the vines were quite scrawny. Plenty of pollinators around so I think it was weather related.