BrotherDanny said:Good morning,
I know little to nothing about planting or gardening but I planted some seeds. Like any first time doting parent I need some help.
(1) I think this is squash? Pictures attached.
(2) Each one of these yellow flowers is suppose to be a squash?
(3) I never see anything flying from flower to flower. I think they look immature for their age. Do I need to sex them by hand?
(4) I see slime traces which turns into holes on the leaves. See pic. What should I do about that?
Thank you for your help.
1) It might be, but it looks more like cucumber to me, from the tiny flowers.. Also in the lower right side I think I see the start of a female that might.. it is mostly off the edge of the picture.. might be a baby cucumber.
2) No, most of the flowers in the picture are males. They make the pollen to fertilize the female flowers and make baby fruits. The female flowers will have tiny fruits between the flower and the stem.
3) They aren't immature... but you might not have many bees. Cucumbers are really hard to pollinate by hand though. Plus, you need a female to pollinate anything. Give it a bit more time, hopefully more female flowers will grow. You could maybe test the soil to see if it has all the nutrients the plant needs to make females.
4) Those are leaf miner trails. They aren't slimy, they are just pockets between the leaf layers where bugs have tunneled. Unless there are a very lot of them, I usually ignore leaf miners. If there are a LOT and they are destroying many leaves, they could weaken the plant.. but most of the time leaf miners just go away.
Welcome and I hope your gardening goes well!!
Edited to add: Actually, yes, there is a brown dead little female cucumber in the picture there with the little white spikes on it. That is def cucumber. Looks like the female flower there didn't get pollinated, that's why it died instead of growing. Try the qtip or a paint brush to help pollinate them. Be sure you are pollinating the females from the males.
