I'm getting beautiful blossoms, they do get po;;inated. Then they close and FALL OFF instead of making zucchini. It's my first season with zucchini and I am disappointed not to have the large crop I expected. What's the matter?

Are they male or female blossoms? Zucchini start producing male blossoms before they produce female blossoms and the male blossoms just fall off when done. I also find the first few female blossoms sometimes fall off too, but after a short time they don't and I have too many zucchini.

I think Tabby is right. You just likely haven't gotten female flowers yet.

Check out these photos:




On a female flower, you can see the little zucchini fruit already present even before the flower opens.

Yep, look at the base of the blossom. If you see what looks like a tiny zucchini, it's a female flower; if you only see a stalk, it's male. There are usually a few male flowers at the beginning of the season before the first female ones open.

Amazing.
I knew they had both male and female flowers, but I didn't know the females opened later!
I'll look!

My friend just around the block is already getting her zucchinis though.
Maybe I have a different strain of plant....

I never grew zucchini. On my list of veggies to grow some day.

How is it possible that I bought a 4 pack of zucchini and there are NO female flowers on any of them????
I looked at the flowers and I see no evidence of fruit or fruit to be.

My experience is that each plant has both male and female blooms. Sometimes the first blooms are only one or the other for a while, but eventually you should be getting both blooms. My first blooms were female, and no males, so they just died off. Then later they had some of both. I picked my first zucchinis yesterday. I had some yellow croke necks a bit earlier. I should have some hybred Zepher ready to pick tomorrow. I planted seeds around the first of June. Do your vines look nice and vigorous? No off colored leaves? Putting on growth at a rather fast rate? If you can answer yes to these questions, you should be getting some zucchinis soon. And then you will have more then you will know what to do with. I ususally plant way to many, and end up with a lot of extras. I feed the extra to my chickens, who love them after my friends start to avoid me thinking "Oh my God, not more zucchinis!"

I've read that they produce both make and female flowers.... The only thingyou mentioned that they are not doing is putting on growth at afast rate, but they lookhealthy. everything else you mentioned is fine. PLUS my neighbor has enough zucchini by now to share with me.... What the????

I've been wondering if your zucchini's have come around yet. I'm in them up to my neck, lol.

Nope.
all 4 plants are all male flowers.....

And I did so much research on zucchini recipes, too!

You still have loads of time. Mine have only just started producing. A few weeks from now you could be swamped.

My local friends are already swamped.....
Maybe I have some strange variety...

I ususally plant one green type, one yellow croke neck, This year I added Hybred Zepher, both green and yellow, kind of cool, but very fast growing. It has to be piced the day after the bloom fades, or else it gets too big. But very tasty.
One plant has green on both ends, and yellow in the middle, the other has just green on the end.

The bicolor is pretty.

Still no zucchini here........

That is so strange. Are they still blooming?

Mine aren't producing nearly as fast as usual but then again, I just now started an intensive water boost. I think that bit of rain we had fooled me into thinking that they had enough. The plants look great, but actual fruit production is low.

Wish I could hand you some, lol, mine are growing like crazy. Some are getting too big on me, so I just feed them to the chickens. They love them too.

I peel the big tough ones, puree the peeling in the cuisinart, and freeze it for soups.

Yep, still blooming, just not producing....

Are they mulched around the base of the plant? If the leaves aren't large enough to shade the soil around the roots, you might try doing that to help maintain even soil moisture.

I'd venture to guess that too much nitrogen fertilizer might have the same effect, but since yours aren't getting huge really fast I'd say it's probably not because of that.