Squash

[annie8]

So latest update. All of the female onion squash that recently set have rotted before really getting going. Couldn’t seem to prevent it. Was left with about 5 big ones from the 3 plants but see one of them has started showing the same signs on its skin. On the crown Prince I have got 3 total from the 3 plants all of which are looking ok so far but still lot of growing to do. Nothing else is setting, very few flowers. Bit disappointed but as I say is the first year of growing so I will probably grow again -if I like the taste of what I get - and will need to learn from what has happened. The plants are still all looking really healthy, and have grown all over the bed.

[Plot70]

After one to three have set per plant any more are dependent on fertilizer and water.
I grow squashes on a raised bed with layers of manure and sun dried weed roots under a thin layer of top soil.
The plants start to carry more fruits as the root balls slump down onto the sun dried weed roots after the manure has gone.
Tomato food or even lawn greening fluid helps too.

[guerlain77]

This is my second year of growing Uchiki Kuri (I love them), and both years have experienced the same thing - the earliest 1 or 2 per plant grow rapidly and ripen healthily to near football size. Then - around about now - the subsequent smaller 8-10 squash per plant do one-by-one develop that brown mottling and then rot... I even lost a couple at the size of a large avocado.

Although I get the point about pollination - this pattern is so clear and consistent between plants and between years (always the earliest ones that succeed), that I have found myself wondering whether some other mechanism might be at work - whether it is actually a growth strategy - the plant having sensed that it has successfully brought a couple to full-size, then focuses its remaining resources into ripening those, and 'deliberately' drops the remaining immature ones? I'll have to try the explicit flower-rubbing technique next year though and see if that makes a difference..!

I have seen advice that you should actually prune back the trailing stems just a bit beyond the first seriously successful looking fruit... again with the intention of focusing resources on that one, rather than making a string of small downstream ones...

[ameno]

When it isn't inadequate pollination then I find the next most often cause of mass fruit/flower abortion is water or nutrient stress.
This could be caused by lack of rain/irrigation, or by inadequate growing conditions (poor soil, lack of fertiliser, trying to grow them in a pot, etc.), or by growing them too close to each other or to other large plants (growing them close to smaller plants tends not to make any difference to squashes; only the small plant suffers from it).

Also, I would say that large avocado size is not all that big. That's only about a week's growth.

[Plot70]

There is a limit to the number of fruits a vine can carry. The vine always keeps a couple of small fruits further out from the rootstock in reserve in case something happens to any of the first to set. Obviously all of the leaves gather solar energy and some vines produce aerial roots that get more nutrients. I find that leaving marrows on the vine a little longer to give them more flavour causes later fruits to abort until they are harvested.

[ameno]

There is a limit to the number of fruits a vine can carry.

There is, yes, but Uchiki Kuri is a fairly small-fruited variety. It should be able to carry a lot more than just 2. Hence my comment about water or nutrient stress. A vine grown in poor conditions cannot carry as many fruits as a healthy one grown in good conditions.

[Snoop Puss]

No advice or other info to give, but just wanted to say hello and welcome, guerlain77.

[guerlain77]

Thank you Snoop Puss - this seems like a great community - happy to be here

[annie8]

So back to this again this year. Growing uchiki kuri and crown Prince again and hoping to improve what I got from the plants last year. I did like the taste of both and they stored well. Have reduced the crown Prince from 3 to 2 to give it more room but kept the same number of uchiki kuri (3) growing up the structure we built last year. They have been outside for a wee while and starting to grow well, few flowers though not yet open and some fruits starting to emerge on the squash. Just read this thread again to remind myself of what I should be thinking about to increase the yield. We shall see….