females are only open for a few hours each morning. go out early in the day and pollinate them.

Thanks for the helpful comments. I'm out there first thing in the morning, and then again every 20 minutes or so. A bit obsessed right? Haven't seen a single female open up.

This is a brand new garden! first season. We did raised beds with no sides. after cutting through the existing ground with a shovel and sprinkle of lime, we laid wet cardboard, then 4" of straw, 6" of compost, fine kitchen scraps, extra worms, and then a repeat of the straw and compost. Much water between each layer. The compost is our 30 year old pile . . . YA! it was huge and consists of grass clippings, leaves and kitchen/vegetable/fruit scraps.

We did not have the soil tested, but maybe I should do that next year. Stuff is growing like crazy in there, super deep green and healthy looking stalks/stems/leaves on everything. The biggest issue I see is that we only get 6 hours of sun before 5:00 pm. I think its ok because we are picking cucumbers (seed planted on May 26, and the bush beans are just setting fruit. The beans were planted from seed on June 10. Everything was a bit late because we got a late start.

When I squeeze the moist soil it feels like it will hold together, but then it does easily break apart when I open my hand. Not sure if that is good or bad. It does have good drainage . . . but that bed with the summer squash in it was the first one (top of compost pile?) seems to dry out faster that than the later beds . . . so I make sure to water as needed.

I now wonder if if I placed the seeds too close together. There are five squash plants staggered in about 4 x 3 foot area. The plants look hearty, but with the sun issue and the spacing . . . maybe its too shady.

I am shocked at the huge number of male flowers. They are now starting to dwindle, but still quite a few. Hoping that I am simply impatient and germination will happen soon. I am ready with a paint brush even though there are a good number of pollinators happily working in there.

Thanks so much to both of you for your help and encouragement!

Lush, deep green foliage and rapidly growing plants can be an indication of too much Nitrogen which can also cause some plant blossoms to not function as they should.

kimmq is kimmsr

OK . . . that makes sense. I didn't realize the compost could have too much of something. Two of the squash plants fell over this week too. They still look happy . . . but they must have been top heavy. LOL

I am enjoying cucumbers, lettuces and watching the beans and tomatoes form.

My root crops don't look like they are forming. First go at radishes was disappointing and I thought it was from starting them too late - too much heat. But maybe the same problem as the squash. Carrots don't look happy either.

Thanks again for your input.

One of the reasons why soil testing is important. Nutrients need to be in balance for optimal growth. It is unfortunate that your Ohio State University no longer does soil testing. However, this article may be of some help.

http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/floriculture/images/CULT-soil_Testing_for_Garden_Plants.pdf

kimmq is kimmsr

OH! thank you for sharing the pdf. I did read it and see that they have provided several places where soil samples can be tested. Thanks so much for the great info!

Update: I took a very close look at the squash plants . . . ACK! there were 7 plants in a 3' x 2.5' area!!!! I looked for the most promising two plants and removed the others. Pulled some compost up near the base of the remaining two and watered them. Will update when I harvest my first squash. I'm hoping that the lack of fruit was because of them crowding each other. One of these plants actually appears to have a little zucchini forming!!!. I wasn't even sure if this was yellow squash or zucchini, but the little squash is green. The seed packet said "summer squash". Do yellow squash start out yellow?

Excitement! Picking cucumbers (about 7 so far) and the beans are forming! The late tomatoes (started from seed on 5/26) now have about 20 tiny tomatoes forming! I'm so excited!!!! It's been 30+ years since I've been able to do a veggie garden and this is so much fun!!!!!

Thanks again for the great input. I have been stalking the topics to make sure my garden is on track. Lots of great info in these threads!!! Thanks to each of you who spends time to help everyone! I hope I'm able to help too one day.