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As you can see from the pictures the blooms look as if they just release themselves and leave the beheaded stalk. There doesn't seem to be any fruit growing at all. Is there something that I am doing that could cause this? Is there something that I could do to keep it from happening?

Zucchini 1

Zucchini 2

Zucchini 3

J. Musser
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DiBobble
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2 Answers2

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Those are male flowers, so what you're experiencing (no fruit) is absolutely normal. Female flowers have a mini fruit underneath, and usually appear when the plant is a little older. Look for a miniature fruit under the flower. The shape will depend on your variety. It looks like you may already have 1 or 2. It is normal for a young squash plant of any kind (except for some parthenocarpic varieties) to start out with only male flowers, and produce the female flowers later when the plant is strong enough to support fruit.

J. Musser
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    This is absolutely correct. It would be worth noting that young plants, such as these, commonly put out a somewhat high quantity of male flowers before any female flowers bloom. As such, there is little need to worry here for why there are so many male but so few female flowers showing. – Laughing_Jack Jul 16 '14 at 18:41
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    Also, you can eat them, for example after putting them in the batter and deep frying them. Google for zucchini flower recipes – pqnet Jul 17 '14 at 02:23
  • @Laughing_Jack Some varieties do it more than others, though, I believe. You can get parthenocarpic squash that put out almost exclusively female flowers, too (but they are the exception more than the rule, and not all parthenocarpic varieties do that). – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Dec 17 '15 at 13:58
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Black beauty zucchini definitely does this, churning out all these male flowers at first (beautiful!) until it has enough big leaves (stalks seem to grow taller and wider later than their first appearance and bloom).

Abbi
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