[sabrina]

I am growing this for the first time in my pollytunnel, the plant has loads of leaves and flowers but nothing eles. I have been feeding  the same stuff the tomatoes get. When should I start seeing the squash growing.

[HappyHippy]

Hi Sabrina,
If you've got flowers the squash should be starting to grow - look underneath the leaves, the fruits are usually green to begin with so might not be immediately obvious. Remove some of the larger leaves to allow the fruit to grow & ripen.
Squash plants need plenty of room (ideally 3ft), so if they're crowded that may be affecting them, they also need quite a lot of water.
Hope you're eating squash soon & hope this helps
Karen

[doganjo]

I have two squash plants.  I have been told that the male flowers seem to come first and that the way to tell which is which is that the female flower has a slight bulge behind it.  I was also told to pollinate the female with pollen from the male but the problem I have is that so far they have all been male flowers and only last for a day.  So I am waiting froa  female flower to appear on teh same day as a male one so i can do teh biz   

[Fluffywelshsheep]

Thats the only prob with the gourd family, the pollination bit.

Mine are growing like mad in the bed just been out to inspect the garden lol

Oh no flowers of any kind yet

(you might find if you snap off some of the male flower you might get femail ones, but it's not a sciences)

[northfifeduckling]

My Hokaido squashes seem to be coming on well. First year I've tried and all from seed from last year's fruit. I've got 3 wee pumpkins already on the biggest plant without any artificial pollination, so I hope they will be growing! They tend to grow into hedges and over fences, so I'm hoping for pumpkins from the hawthorn bushes soon, lol. If it turns out like that I'll post a pic   

[doganjo]

I didn't realise you could plant them outside down here, Kerstin.  Coming from cold, snowy Aberdeenshire anything like that stays inside.  My two plants are taking up most of my conservatory 

[Rumpleteazer]

I am growing mine next to my pumpkins. The only trouble is I can't remember which is which and the plants look identical!!! Got flowers, so hoping they will fruit (whichever they are!).

[doganjo]

With all the rain we've had today I should think they'd have drowned!  So miserable the heating's on!

[northfifeduckling]

same here, the ducks had so much fin making a mess of what used to be a lawn 
It's the first year I'm trying the Hokaido, fingers crossed!!!

[Carolinajim]

My climate is definitely different but maybe this technique might work.

A neighbor gave me a couple of tons of horse manure.  I dumped a lot of the horse manure in my new greenhouse area.  I had a bunch of butternut seed that I had saved and had run out of room in my garden.

I said what the heck and planted 4 hills on the edge of the manure pile.  I planted zuchinni on the other side.

I ended up with half a wheelbarrow load of butternut squash and lots of zuchinni. 

I know this idea won't help this year but maybe next year?

I gave a shopping bag full of butternut squash to the neighbor who gave me the manure.

[sabrina]

Well so far I have found one squash growing which gives me hope. The plant has plenty of room and I have fed and water as my book says so will just have to wait and see. 

[doganjo]

Still just unproductive one day flowers for me - very pretty but a total waste of time!  Keeping fingers crossed for a real flower some time soon or it won't have time to ripen!