On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:27:09 Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

On 21/07/2020 10:55, David Rance wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 09:32:58 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
David Rance* wrote:

This year I am growing squashes for the first time. They are
producing
plenty of female flowers which are now opening, but there are no male
flowers with which to ..... er, fertilise (is that the right word?)
them. There are buds of male flowers but they never develop.

So, do squashes need to be fertilised in the same way as courgettes? I
do have some courgette plants alongside the squashes which *are*
producing a few male flowers. Can I fertilise the squashes from them?

Most squashes grown in the UK are Cucurbita pepo, as are courgettes,
so it should work.* Hubbards, Crown Prince etc. are C. maxima,
Butternut and Tromboncino d'Albenga are C. moschata, and probably
won't.

Thanks, Nick. The seeds from which I grew the plants were saved from
a squash I bought in Waitrose in January. The label doesn't say what
variety they are (apart from the label saying "Golden Butternut
Squash" which I suppose is a description rather than a variety!) but
says they were grown in Greece. Well, we'll have to see what happens.
I don't think the first female flower was pollinated properly as the
fruit is two inches long and hasn't grown for a week. Two later ones
do seem to be getting larger and are between three and four inches
long. I don't expect them to grow to the proportions of the original
but anything will be worth having.

(I've just remembered the correct word - "pollinate". Age is
catching up with me but I won't make that an excuse!)

Because of the lack of squash male flowers, I've been pollinating the
squashes from courgettes and it has worked because the squashes are now
growing. So it seems that the courgettes and the squashes are both
cucurbita pepo. (I've discounted pollination from neighbours' gardens as
no-one round here is growing vegetables.)

Ironically today for the first time I have about half a dozen male
squash flowers open and not a single female flower which they can
pollinate.

Are you aware of toxic squash syndrome?

Yes. I gather that it is discernible through the bitter taste and that,
if you try one which is bitter, it should be immediately spat out and
the rest discarded! I gathered that first squash fruit which didn't seem
to be growing, cut off a slice and tasted it and it wasn't at all
bitter. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, I spat it out!

As an addendum to cucurbitae and bitterness, about thirty years ago I
grew some gherkins. I went away for my summer holiday and, upon my
return, of course, they had grown enormous. Nevertheless I'm not one to
throw things away and, although they tasted very bitter, I hoped that
with a few months' pickling, they might be edible.

They weren't!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK