It is easy to distinguish female flowers – a small zucchini bud “fruit” is visible under them. If it turns yellow and falls off, it means the flower was not pollinated.
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To get zucchinis to start bearing fruit, ensure these conditions:
- Choose a sunny spot.
- Water only at the roots, preferably in the morning or evening. Check the soil by inserting a finger about 3 cm deep – it should be neither dry nor waterlogged.
- Fertilize every two weeks with an ash solution – a glass of wood ash in 10 liters of water.
About a month before flowering, you can use a boric acid solution – 2 g of boric acid in 10 liters of water, to better form the buds.
If there are no bees in the garden, zucchinis can be pollinated manually. You need to pick a male flower, remove its petals and stamens, and press them against the pistil of the female flower. It is best to do this before 10 a.m.
Boron and iodine spray to stimulate flowering
At the beginning of flowering, you can use the following solution:
- dissolve half a teaspoon of boric acid in hot water;
- add to 9 liters of warm water;
- add 30 drops of iodine and 1 liter of whey.
Spray the bushes early in the morning or after sunset every 14 days, starting from the beginning of flowering.
The plant uses boron for better calcium absorption and flower formation, iodine helps strengthen the plant’s resistance, and whey can help protect against powdery mildew.
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Candidate of Biological Sciences Elena Smirnova, a plant physiology specialist and author of scientific works on pollination of cucurbit plants, states that boron deficiency may be the reason why the plant does not set fruit.
“Scientifically speaking, the appearance of female flowers is regulated by phytohormones, especially cytokinins and gibberellins. Their production directly depends on environmental conditions. Boron deficiency can disrupt gibberellin synthesis, so the plant does not form enough female flowers. Therefore, fertilizing with boric acid is not just a folk method – it is a scientifically based agrotechnical measure,” she says.
It is also important to know that zucchini pollen remains viable for only 4–6 hours, so manual pollination must be done in the morning, on the same day the flower opens. After 11 a.m., the pollen loses its ability to fertilize the flower.
