Kitchen Garden Forum

I seem to have got my squashes mixed up and would be grateful if anyone could set me right. One has whiteish papery flowers and wants to climb; the other wants to spread along the ground and has yet to flower. One is butternut, the other serpente di sicilia from franchi. Either way, nothing is producing any fruit. For a bonus mark, if anyone could tell me why the white-flowers are shrivelling without setting fruit I'd be even more grateful.

With regards to flower not setting, it could be that these are the MALE flowers and will not set, or females flowers that have opened when there are no male flowers. Female flower will have a minature undeveloped friut behind the flower, males will not

Many, many more male flowers will be produced and females are generally produced a week or so after the males have started. The plant will also only produce male flowers if it is stressed, fo keep up the watering and feeding if necessary.

Unfortunately I've never grown serpente di sicilia before, but my Butternut have been trained to climb up framing, so hope this helps.

Butternut are usually yellow flowered like courgettes.

thanks for this - still no fruits so can't tell for sure but I'll keep watering and hope for something