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#1
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Zuccini
This is my first season growing zuccinni, black beauty variety. It's now
about 8 inches tall and the foiliage is looking great, and earlier this morning I noticed what appeared to be some flower buds starting low on the main stem. My Q is is this normal, and will the little zucc's be blander because of it? Thanks for the help. |
#2
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Zuccini
In article , Dave&Dana Gaunky wrote:
This is my first season growing zuccinni, black beauty variety. It's now about 8 inches tall and the foiliage is looking great, and earlier this morning I noticed what appeared to be some flower buds starting low on the main stem. My Q is is this normal, and will the little zucc's be blander because of it? Thanks for the help. Zucchinis have separate male and female flowers. The male flowers usually tend to start appearing first, and won't develop into zukes at all. You can tell the difference, because female flowers have little bitty zukes at their bottom ends and males just have plain old ordinary stems. cheers, Marj * * * Marj Tiefert: http://www.mindspring.com/~mtiefert/ Marj's Mini Mall: http://stores.tiefert.com/ Coleridge shop: http://www.cafeshops.com/coleridgestore Marjorie's Morning Star: http://newsletter.tiefert.com/ science editing services: http://science.tiefert.com/ |
#3
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Zuccini
Dave&Dana Gaunky wrote:
This is my first season growing zuccinni, black beauty variety. It's now about 8 inches tall and the foiliage is looking great, and earlier this morning I noticed what appeared to be some flower buds starting low on the main stem. My Q is is this normal, and will the little zucc's be blander because of it? Thanks for the help. Since growing zukes is new to you, beware of the dreaded (make that most annoying) squash bug, aka stinkbug. By the time you are familiar with it you'll likely have a few other choice names for these miserable stinking creatures. If not controlled they'll kill your plants in a matter of 2 weeks at most. Watch along the stalks ans *especially* under the leaves for small clusters of tiny light brown eggs, amybe 40 or so in the cluster which will have an overall size of about a dime. Pick that patch off and squish it between your fingers. Keep an eye for them - DAILY! Thats how to control the eggs, now for the adults. They are really hard to locate so take your hose and water the plants (all leaves etc) real good for between 5 & 10 secs. Then watch for them to get out of the water by climbing the stalk. Quickly grab them and squish them between the fingers. They stink like hell but its the most effective means I've found so far. Do this DAILY also, maybe even twice a day. If you don't you'll be surprised how fast they can devestate the plants. I don't know for sure where they come from or where they go to but I know for a fact they'll kill your plants unless you control them. I've tried onions, garlic, marigolds etc by mine to no effect. I've tried the shingle thing too where they are supposed to hide under shingles layed on the ground and you move them and catch the bugs - NOT!, no way Jose! I like Diazinon but refuse to use it on edible plants so the water trick is what works for me the very best. The squash bugs and I have a daily battle every summer, all summer. I get the zukes but overall I think the battle is a standoff, nobody wins totally sigh. I stil wonder why god created the damned things - the bugs of course? BTW, I tried waht a friend recommended, that being to take a Q-tip in the early AM when the flowers are open, lightly rub it around inside the male flower, then rub it around inside the female flower. It definately txfrs the pollen but I didn't note my yield being any greater than in the years I didn't do it so I quit. Its a good method of looking for those lousy bugs thoughVBG!!! |
#4
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Zuccini
John DeBoo wrote:
Dave&Dana Gaunky wrote: This is my first season growing zuccinni, black beauty variety. It's now about 8 inches tall and the foiliage is looking great, and earlier this morning I noticed what appeared to be some flower buds starting low on the main stem. My Q is is this normal, and will the little zucc's be blander because of it? Thanks for the help. Since growing zukes is new to you, beware of the dreaded (make that most annoying) squash bug, aka stinkbug. Also the squash vine borers. However, my experience is that, by the time the squash vine borer makes an appearance, I am only too happy to see it! :-) Bill -- I do not post my address to news groups. |
#5
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Zuccini
You should do what I found out on this (or another) newsgroup several years
ago: When you get both male flowers (regular stems) and female flowers (stems that look like little zucchini), take a small paintbrush, use it to get pollen from a male flower (inside it, at the stamen) , and brush it on a female flower (inside it, on whatever it's called). You'll get the idea. It will increase your squash yield by a bunch. Dave&Dana Gaunky wrote: This is my first season growing zuccinni, black beauty variety. It's now about 8 inches tall and the foiliage is looking great, and earlier this morning I noticed what appeared to be some flower buds starting low on the main stem. My Q is is this normal, and will the little zucc's be blander because of it? Thanks for the help. |
#6
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Zuccini
You should do what I found out on this (or another) newsgroup several years
ago: When you get both male flowers (regular stems) and female flowers (stems that look like little zucchini), take a small paintbrush, use it to get pollen from a male flower (inside it, at the stamen) , and brush it on a female flower (inside it, on whatever it's called). You'll get the idea. It will increase your squash yield by a bunch. Dave&Dana Gaunky wrote: This is my first season growing zuccinni, black beauty variety. It's now about 8 inches tall and the foiliage is looking great, and earlier this morning I noticed what appeared to be some flower buds starting low on the main stem. My Q is is this normal, and will the little zucc's be blander because of it? Thanks for the help. |
#7
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Zuccini
Jim Thomas writes:
You should do what I found out on this (or another) newsgroup several years ago: When you get both male flowers (regular stems) and female flowers (stems that look like little zucchini), take a small paintbrush, use it to get pollen from a male flower (inside it, at the stamen) , and brush it on a female flower (inside it, on whatever it's called). You'll get the idea. It will increase your squash yield by a bunch. You are right, but only up to a point. For pumpkins, squash, etc., it is true. But most home gardeners harvest their zucchini while they are small--at most a day after the flower opens. At this stage, it is immaterial whether the flower has been pollinated or not--the fruit is of a size perfect for picking. Only if you intend leaving the fruit to reach a more mature marrow size need you bother about the pollination. This is the beauty of zucchini--you don't need bees (or paintbrushes) to get your crop. Picked at this stage (on the day that the flower opens) the fruit is at its tastiest and most tender, and the plant will go on to produce tons more fruit if you keep picking them early. If the flower is not properly pollinated the individual fruit must be harvested while tiny, it will never grow into a mature marrow; left on the bush each fruit will wither and drop off within days of its flower opening. -- John Savage (news reply email invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup) |
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