Reversed Zucchini Patterns
I've been growing the same two varieties of zucchini for several years now, Striatto D'Italia and Green Tiger. Both are bush plants, both produce similarly flavored and striped fruit, but Tiger, the hybrid, is usually a bit earlier and a bit more productive.
However, they've always shared the same frustrating habit of pumping out a ton of male flowers for weeks before a single female flower appeared!
This year I'm seeing the reverse in both, for some reason. I have female flowers on the verge of blooming, with the first male flowers just barely starting to show a little yellowing on their still tightly closed petals. For the past three days I've been picking and ripping open the most developed male flower and trying to hand pollinate a blooming female. The first "took" and I have a quickly developing baby zucchini. Still waiting to see what the other two are going to do.
I wish they would get themselves more on synch some year! And I wish I knew what caused a reversal in their flowering pattern..,
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