Are squirrels breaking rotten my squash blooms? Do birds break them off, too? There are many squirrels and...
Do birds break them off, too? There are many squirrels and birds contained by our neighborhood. Each morning I discover that another one of my flowers from my zucchini squash has been broken verbs off of its base. What's going on? At this rate, I'm afraid I won't hold any vegetables this fall!
i dont think the birds will do it..could be squirrels raccoons or deer.put some moth ball around your garden...will keep animals out...or some hair from a local salon.they dont close to the smell of humans. Hondu is exactly right..squash will bloom male flowers only for going on for 2 to 3 weeks before any female ones do.. The males are distinguished by one on a long stem that the blooms emerge from in the early morning..start to wither around 10 am or so ..and close put a bet on up with the heat..after they fall off within one or two days..when the female flowers begin to bloom..they will not be on a long stem close to the males..but flower from the main stalk with a small squash right losing the bloom..here is a couple pictures..
This picture is a female..notice how it is coming straight from a crucial stalk..
http://images.hunt.yahoo.com/images/vi...
This is a male bloom..notice the stem it is on..this is how you let somebody know
http://images.check out.yahoo.com/images/vi...
Another male bloom here..
http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/vi...
Those blossoms you see on the ground are most likely male blossoms. Most of the cucurbit own flesh and blood (squash, cucumber, melon) will start growing male flowers first. A lot of these male flowers will season and fall off even since there are any female blossoms. Also, It is unprocessed for the male blossoms to fall past its sell-by date once they have done their pollination. No squirrels and birds are not attracted to squash. Squash needs more sea than most plants. I had squash plants and they did that to. When it rained for close to three days straight, they grew like crazy!
Answers: Unless your squirrels are actually ingestion your flowers probably not (squash blossoms are edible though).
If those flowers are still there lay on the ground you are more likely experiencing blossom drops because of poor pollination. Zucchini blossoms open for a year then dry up. During that one day the flower have to be pollinated to get a squash.
To make things more difficult, nearby are male and female flowers so that pollen wishes to get from boy flower to girl flower assuming you even have both blooming impossible to tell apart day. Squash romance is complicated.
For this you need bees which are surrounded by short supply all over this year so you might need to step within and play match-maker in their place. In the morning pick a male flower (on the longer stems), remove petals exposing the boy parts. Push that into the feminine flower (the one with the little mini-zukes instead of a stem) rubbing as much pollen as possible onto the girl parts (these are very hi-tech terms).
If that mini-zucchini starts getting bigger you're a daddy (or a mommy)! If not, throw rocks at the squirrels.