Restrict number of squash

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Should I pinch off female flowers on winter squash after many are already developing well? They seem to be going crazy at the moment with so many little squash forming that I’m not sure that they will all reach a good size.

Darren

[charlesModerator]

 Luckily they thin themselves out to produce however many mature fruit the plant feels capable of…. it would be difficut to find all the baby fruit.

[DazzerelliParticipant]

During previous years I’ve tried to thin the fruit out and failed because, as you say, it’s difficult to find all the fruit, particularly as the plant gets bigger. So this year I’ll just leave it to get on with it.

Should I expect the plants to shed some of the baby fruit? I’ve seen this happening in previous years and thought that this was a problem and maybe the plant wasn’t happy or the fruit hadn’t been fertilised.

[charlesModerator]

 Leaving them alone is fine, same with melon fruit too, they self-thin according to heat, moisture, age of plant etc.  Currently they may self-prune a little because of moisture being limited. Pinching out any invasive growing tips is the best way to help fruiting.

For anyone growing melons, once plants are touching you want to pinch out all growing points you can see, and keep doing that every few days, to push growth into fruit rather than more stem and leaf. But wait until there is a good mass of leaves on the ground first!

[Author]

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