Why Is My Squash Not Fruiting? (2024)

“What’s wrong with my squash?” and “Why isn’t my squash fruiting?” are two common questions. Often, these squash problems are related to a lack of pollinators. Here are the short answers and how you can ensure a full harvest of squash thisyear.

Why Is My Squash NotFruiting?

If your squash plant produces ample flowers but never bears actual fruit, or it bears fruit that stops growing when it’s very small, then you’re likely dealing with apollination issue.

Most squash are monoecious, meaning a single plant produces both male and female flowers.Male blossoms are borne on a straight green stem, while female blossoms sit atop a tiny bulbous growth (the eventual squash fruit).

To develop fruit, pollen from male flowers must be physically transferred to the female flowers by bees. Usually, the bees do a fine job, but if you don’t have enough bees in your area, you may end up with less squash than you had hopedfor!

Hand-PollinatingSquash

Luckily, it’s easy enough to masquerade as a bee for a day and pollinate the flowers yourself. To do so, you’ll need to transfer pollen from the male flowers to the femaleflowers.

How toHand-Pollinate:

1. First, identify the male and female flowers. Female flowers have a small bulbous growth at their base, which will eventually develop into the squash fruit. Male flowers do not have thisgrowth.
2. After finding a male flower, use a Q-tip, pipe cleaner, paintbrush, or similar object to gently dust around inside the flower, being sure to gather pollen on the end of the pollinatingutensil.
3. Locate female flowers and gently dust them inside them as if you were a buzzingbee.
4. Repeat this with as many male and female flowers as you like. The pollen from one male flower should be enough to pollinate a few femaleflowers.

See our video demonstrating how to hand pollinatesquash:

What If I Only Find Male (or Female)Flowers?

Don’t worry! Squash plants don’t always produce male and female flowers at the exact sametime.

What usually happens is the following: You’ll see male blossoms first, and you’ll wonder where the female flowers are.Be patient.If there have been unusually high amounts ofrain or cold weather, this can delay the emergence of the female flowers by abit.

Subpar weather can also impact the activity of pollinators,which is another reason to hand-pollinatesquash.

If you see the fruit that is shriveling and/or rotting, this may also be a pollinator issue. However, it can also happen because the conditions are so damp that the fruit gets killed off by a fungus, blossom end rot.

LearnMore

Squash can also have pestproblems, but that’s another story. See our Squash and Zucchini Growing Guide to learnmore!