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5. Q. Why won't my squash set fruit -- they bloom and the blooms fall off?
A. Squash have male and female blossoms on the same plant (monoecious). The male blossom is borne on a slender stalk. The female blossom has the swollen embryonic fruit attached at its base. The blossoms of both sexes are open and fertile only during the morning hours of one day. During this time pollen must be transferred by bees or by a person using an artists paint brush or Q-Tip, the female blossom will close without being fertilized, the squash will not enlarge and in a few days it will drop from the plant to the ground. The male blossom may open a second day, but the pollen will no longer be fertile and the blossom will close, wilt and drop from the plant that day or the next. There are many more male blossoms than female blossoms on a squash plant. There may be 3 to 4 male blossoms opening for several days to a week before the first female blossoms open.
8. Q. My squash has been producing plenty of male squash blooms which I have been eating as fast as they are produced. This Italian delicacy, fried squash blooms, is prepared by harvesting partially opened blooms, coated by dipping into a water-flour batter, browning in hot olive oil with a garlic clove (optional) added and serving with lemon. However I have not harvested any squash fruit. What could be the problem?
A. The problem is that you are eating the male bloom before the female bloom (the bloom with the small squash attached) can be pollinated. If you are removing the male bloom in a "partially opened" condition, pollination by insects can not have occurred and no squash fruit will be produced. You can't eat the blooms and have your squash too!!\

They will take longer to ripen off the vine (in my experience). Do you know what kind of varmints are going after the tomatoes?? Sometimes, it's hard to let those first few that are almost ready go.... but when it gets to the bumper crop, leave them on. Should be enough for critters and your own enjoyment.

Hi,

If you do choose to ripen off vine, then you can slow ripening by leaving them in the open air. You speed it up by leaving them in a paper bag. Tomatoes give off ethylene gas while ripening that allowed to build up in the bag will encourage ripening.

Regards,

The Wife put them in the sun on the back porch. After they're off the vine, does the sun matter? Sounds like maybe no.

"Exposure to sunlight is crucial for sugar production in tomatoes," said Nelson. "Picking mature green or breaker stage tomatoes reduces their time in the sun, and reduces the levels of sugar in the tomatoes.

But how about if you put breaker stage fruits in the sun as your grandparents did. Doesn't the sugar production process continue even when they're off the vine?

When you pick the fruit early, you are also taking it away from the plant who is feeding and providing optimal ripening conditions. You could experiment and provide us the results: eat a vine ripened tomato as opposed to one ripened on the window or in the bag. You could do this with three brothers from the same plant who are at approximately the same stage. Add another brother and throw him into the refrigerator.

Better living through science!

Regards,

I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you knew it all, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it? Well, it's always the same. I always tell them...Run Away! Run Away!

This was what I meant when I said UFO size; go ahead and slice it up - they still make a great gratin or grill well as long as they're not hard.

I think it's a combination of two things: they grow extremely quickly, and they are perfectly camoflauged by the squash stems - so if you forget one when it's dime size, it may be football-size before you notice it again. It's less of a problem with the yellow and dark green varieties.

Later this afternoon, they put another one up there. A yellow one. This is psycho. This shall not stand. I didn't want this. This is war.

To defeat the squirrel, I must think like the squirrel.

Bring it, bushy tail.

Hammond

PS. When I went out in the yard this evening, I spotted my friend the bunny. He was looking at the tomatoes, clearly getting ideas. They're making this personal. They want a war, they got a war.

Famous last words, David. What if the animal kingdom in your neighborhood reads LTHforum? They will surely have read how you dealt with the raccoons. To paraphrase George C. Scott in the movie Patton, "Hammond, you bastard, I have read your post!" The animals go off clucking that nothing really will happen in this war of words.