Volunteer Leaves Safe

[HeatherKellyB]

I have this volunteer come up beside my Call Duck run. Google says it's summer squash and I did give the ducks some yellow squash and zucchini last summer from our garden. It's been growing really well but it's not putting off any fruit. It's growing out and has reached probably 5 ft. It's putting off nice flowers. I know it's getting plenty of water being beside ducks but I just realized that I haven't used any fertilizer other than duck poop that's naturally flowed over to it. My Calls have been reaching through to bite off pieces of the leaves and they seem to LOVE them. So my question is, should I try anything else to get this plant to put off some fruit or just accept that it's not going to do anything except provide some green leafy treats for my ducks? The leaves are safe for the ducks, right? What about the flowers? The location isn't ideal as it seems like a good hiding spot for snakes plus it's running out so far in the grass. Thank you for your time and any input you can provide

Side note: I just remembered that it did put off one teeny tiny squash that shriveled up and died within 2 days.

 

[Quatie]

You may not be getting good pollination. Squash has male and female flowers on it and you need pollinators to pollinate the female flowers. You can do it manually yourself. Zucchini is usually pretty prolific.

I have been following this one channel that has a lot of great advice on growing. He has gotten my husband super into our vegetable garden. Anyway, here is his video on zucchini.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

You may not be getting good pollination. Squash has male and female flowers on it and you need pollinators to pollinate the female flowers. You can do it manually yourself. Zucchini is usually pretty prolific.

I have been following this one channel that has a lot of great advice on growing. He has gotten my husband super into our vegetable garden. Anyway, here is his video on zucchini.

Thank you so much. This was very helpful! It appears that this plant is putting off mostly male flowers for some reason. I've already got a few ideas to try and see if it helps I really appreciate your help

 

[Quatie]

If your ducks had more access to it, I would suspect they were eating the female flowers. It something I would very much expect from ducks. Mine ate all the blossoms off my newly planted peach tree earlier in the year .

 

[HeatherKellyB]

If your ducks had more access to it, I would suspect they were eating the female flowers. It something I would very much expect from ducks. Mine ate all the blossoms off my newly planted peach tree earlier in the year .

Im sure they would if they could, but no such luck for them Taking a close look today, I did find a few female flowers just starting. They're super tiny and the flower is merely a bud. In your understanding, at what point should I hand pollinate? I need a flower to open before I can pollinate right? It'd be pointless to attempt to pollinate the bud, right? I don't know how deep the roots go so I'm planning on digging a couple of holes around the roots and use the water bottle tip shown in the video. I've been looking for ways to use plastic bottles anyway because my daughter drinks bottled water and I drink tea in individual sized bottles, so needless to say, we make way too much waste! I've started keeping the more firm bottles in an effort to reduce litter and this is a wonderful way to use a couple of them. Gotta start somewhere, right? Thanks again for everything I really appreciate you

 

[HeatherKellyB]

One other thing. You spiked my interest in this so I ended up watching several videos on this subject. One man suggested pruning some (not all) of the male flowers so the plant will put more energy into making new flowers. I'm going to try this. Any chance you know if the male flowers are safe for the ducks to eat? I'll look it up before I prune them but the last thing I'd want to do is hurt my ducks.
This plant seems to grow a lot overnight

 

[Quatie]

Im sure they would if they could, but no such luck for them Taking a close look today, I did find a few female flowers just starting. They're super tiny and the flower is merely a bud. In your understanding, at what point should I hand pollinate? I need a flower to open before I can pollinate right? It'd be pointless to attempt to pollinate the bud, right? I don't know how deep the roots go so I'm planning on digging a couple of holes around the roots and use the water bottle tip shown in the video. I've been looking for ways to use plastic bottles anyway because my daughter drinks bottled water and I drink tea in individual sized bottles, so needless to say, we make way too much waste! I've started keeping the more firm bottles in an effort to reduce litter and this is a wonderful way to use a couple of them. Gotta start somewhere, right? Thanks again for everything I really appreciate you

Yep, until they are blooming, otherwise it is not worth trying to pollinate them. Hopefully that will help produce zucchini. I was thinking it is also possible that it is some hybrid squash and not very fertile.

The bottle trick is pretty cool. I haven't used it yet but want to in the future. With the drought here, it would also help reduce water usage. I have been using a lot of bottles as little planters lately. I am trying to propagate some plants around my yard, so I needed a lot of pots for cuttings.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

This plant is growing out like crazy! It's about 8ft long by 7ft wide. I'm seeing more and more female sprouts, but no female flowers yet. I watched a video that suggested removing some of the male flowers (maybe the one you posted) and I'm going to do that. I'm thinking about pruning it back some too. It's just too large. Maybe if it's pruned back a bit it will be able to focus more of its energy on these female sprouts. I think the problem with thag is most of the female sprouts are the ones that are the fartherest out from the original root. Maybe this is typical with it being a volunteer It's just so huge

 

[HollowOfWisps]

How long have the males been blooming for? Male blossoms will start blooming before the female flowers usually around 10 days to attract pollinators to the plant and then the females will slowly start to bloom after that. As for your squash starting to grow then shriveling while it's still small your plant needs more calcium in the soil.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

How long have the males been blooming for? Male blossoms will start blooming before the female flowers usually around 10 days to attract pollinators to the plant and then the females will slowly start to bloom after that. As for your squash starting to grow then shriveling while it's still small your plant needs more calcium in the soil.

It's been blooming for at least 2 weeks now, probably more. I am seeing more and more females sprout but still none blooming. I'll look into getting some calcium added to the soil. I'm guessing this isn't just the typical fertilizer? Thank you so much for this information. I apologize that I missed it for so long. The ducks aren't able to reach any more of the leaves now, which they're not happy about. My free ranging roosters don't bother the plant at all. I'm also seeing some volunteer corn stalks shoot up

Thank you both for all of your time and input. I really appreciate it