Zucchini. Why Is It Not Producing?

Zucchini is famous for producing enough fruit until you are sick of it. But zucchini production may be a bit slow this year. Check for yourself and see when yours is coming on! At the Viragrow's demonstration raised vegetable beds the fruit is just now starting to come on and we are bracing ourselves.

On the picture to the right we can see both male and female flowers. The male flower is still closed and is closer to us. The female is opening and has a fat stem below it that will develop into the zucchini fruit. If the flowers are not open at the same time, the fruit will not receive pollen from the male and the fruit will not develop.

Zucchini and most squash, melons and cucumbers produce both male and female flowers. Frequently the first flowers produced are male. If you look to the right, you will see one brightly colored, yellow flower, a female. But there is a second flower just in front of it and slightly to its right. It is not open yet. It is the male. To get fruit, male and female flowers must be open at the same time.

What is important is the "stem" just below the flower. The male flower has a very skinny "stem" that supports the male flower. But the female flower's stem is swollen, the predecessor to the fruit we will eat. If the fruit will continue to develop so we can eat it then both a male and female flower need to be open at the same time. The second thing we need are bees. The bees will transfer the pollen from the skinny stemmed male flower to the fat-stemmed, female flower. If that happens, we have a good chance of getting some fruit to develop on the female.

The picture to the right has a male flower closest to us. If you look toward the back and to our left, you will see the fat-stemmed female flower. 

If you really push your vegetables with lots of nitrogen fertilizer early in the year it may delay your production of zucchini for a bit. The plant will get larger at the expense of producing early flowers.

But the tradeoff is the larger plant has the capacity to produce more fruit. So when it does come on, watch out! Spread your plants out. Fertilize one and get it larger. On the other, withhold nitrogen and force it into earlier production. Now you have the best of both worlds!