Selective pruning of female flowers should give you whatever number of fruit you want. The question is whether the plant should do what it wants to do, or what you want it to do.

There's a reason why there are so many recipes out there for zucchini flowers :)

I agree with Daninthedirt -- just remove some female flowers and enjoy them stuffed with cheese and fried, or fried in batter like tempura and served with marinara. Delicious!

Don't you know people to give them to??

Thank you everyone, but I knew all this already. I would also appreciate an answer to my question.

Quite a lot of info online about this. See for example

https://brownthumbmama.com/best-zucchini-containers/

I think, long ago, I grew Astia.

Our point was that this is a good question, but not obviously that relevant to your problem.

You can start growing round zucchini -- they are about 4 inches wide. Good for stuffing and the flowers are very tasty. Look for Ronde de Nice.

Thanks again JoJo and daninthedirt.

JoJo: I know Ronde de Nice. It is my favourite. The whole plant looks beautiful and the fruit is very tasty. The only problem is, it grows too big in my garden (8' x 8'), and produces much too much. I would really like round variety plant with good quality fruit, but small.

daninthedirt: thanks for the link. Sounds interesting, but there is always this scary information about the proposed varieties: "highly productive", "bears abundant zucchini", "prolific producer", and so on. Is there a zucchini plant that is not? i am loosing hope . . .

I'll say it again. You can MAKE zucchini not be highly productive. You can make ANY vegetable not be highly productive. All it takes is a minute or two with a scissors. Do scissors scare you?

It sounds like your real problem isn't productivity, but space. That being the case, you might consider a vining zucchini. They don't really climb, but they can be tied up. And keep the scissors handy.

Zucchini are over-productive by nature. To most people, that is a good thing, since you can always give away extra (or freeze it). It is unlikely that you will find a zucchini that meets your standards, since new varieties are specifically bred for high productivity, and low productivity would be seen as inferior.

In addition to Dan's comments - with which I concur - have you considered growing zucchini in a pot, or a 5-gallon bucket? The reduced root zone would stunt the plant, which should reduce the yield. That would free up garden space too.

Count your blessings. My zucchini often fail completely😕 I’d love to have enough flowers to spare for stuffing. This year I planted three times. Eaten by snails, every one. In the end I gave up. I grow bush varieties which, when they do succeed, don’t exceed three square feet or so. I grow yellow varieties so I can see them and they can’t hide away and grow into monsters.

zeedman: Yes, I give away, I freeze. Frozen zucchini is very useful in my kitchen in winter and spring. Still, I like to eat also other things. My garden is big, no problems with not enough space. As a matter of fact I move more and more flowers to my vegetable garden to fill it, so now it is almost difficult to say if it is a flower or a vegetable garden. As for my vegetables I like variety, eating too much zucchini is not what I have my garden for. I think, I may stay with my Ronde de Nice, every second year . . .

floral: What varieties do you grow? You see, zucchini is a hot weather plant, it is what it gets in my garden, a lot of heat. It is also something what slugs can't deal with, heat kills them. Slugs are quite abstract idea to me. In my garden heat and drought are the biggest problem. Often we don't have here even a drop of rain for two or more summer months. I am sure, I could not even try to grow in my garden what you do in yours.

Sorry, I thought you said your garden was 8'x8' which isn't big. That's why I thought you didn't have much space. You don't mean that one zucchini takes up that space, do you? I've never seen a zuke that big.

The last few years I’ve grown Atena Polka. Slugs and snails are the number one pest in U.K. gardens.

Thank you floral, though the description of Atena Polka on the Net is rather not encouraging to me: "grows rapidly in great numbers, up to 20cm long".

I suppose in the coastal PNW slugs are a problem, too. I live 600 km from the coast, the climate here is quite different, closer to continental.

daninthedirt: yes, my Zucchini grows that big. Afters 15 years of building up the soil in my garden, adding all kinds of organic matter, going deep half a meter (almost two feet), growing green manure crops, practicing no-till approach whenever possible, etc. I don't complain about small size or lack of productivity of my plants.

If I had this problem.... and living now in a place where any squash beyond the first flush is an absolute miracle, I’d grow my summer squash cultivars in a large pot

I don't understand why being "over productive" is a problem, just eat the better quality squash, compost the others. Isn't it better to have enough good food to meet your needs, than not enough? They breed new types to be productive.

You could try "fencing" in the plant and trimming off some leaves so the plant doesn't sprawl over the place, and the plant may also be less productive, since you are complaining about your success.

You could also donate your extra squash to a food bank or kitchen. They always appreciate fresh produce. Place your produce in your trunk, call ahead and have someone come out to your car, pop the trunk and let them collect it.

I can understand that having too many squash just makes for some work, whether donating them, gifting them, freezing, or composting them. If all that turns you off, then the answer is just not to allow them to form.

There's a joke in Minnesota: people lock their cars in July and August in order to keep out the zucchini. Hah.

I grow zucchini and I live by myself and always have too much. I just compost (or simply let rot in the garden) whatever extra I can't give away.

Your question made me go search on "dwarf zucchini" (I hadn't even thought that could be a thing, but it sure is!) and I ran into this link, among many others, which I think I will be interested in for next year. If it grows in a container, maybe it would be smaller in the garden as well. https://www.reneesgarden.com/products/squash-zucchini-container-astia

I'm sure there's a solution to our mutual problem. Nobody's recommending anything yet, but I think I'll give this a try next year and, if I remember, let you know the outcome.

Joan

I have too many big weeds. I need to get weeds that don't grow as big. Any recommendations? Oh, gosh no. I'd never take the trouble to pull them when they're small!

Thank you Joan for trying to answer my question. Astia zucchini is also mentioned in one of the previous posts by daninthedirt, but he did not say much about it. I also searched the Net for the smallest zucchini plant. Gold Rush is probably one of them. May be I will try that and let you know, hopefully, my opinion next year.

I have grown Astia zucchini for the last three years now in a container. I found it was just enough for me. I gave my neighbor or sister them if I didn’t want them at the time. I was never overwhelmed with zucchini. The plant is a pretty plant. Try that one from Renee’s Garden. That is where I got the seeds. I also would suggest you cut off the flowers if you feel they are producing too much. Good luck in your search to find just what you are looking for.

Thank you, Patti, for your input. I am afraid in the garden it may grow bigger and produce more, but may be I will try it. Is the fruit of good quality? So far you are third to mention it.

Yes, I enjoyed the taste and so did the people I gave it to. I do pick them small and I believe it is best on the smaller side.

HU from oklahoma

Unfortunately all the hybrid improved zucchini I can find claim to be high yielding. Maybe you could lower the quality of your soil to solve your problem.

There's something you don't hear much in our Vegetable Gardening forum. Lower the quality of your soil to solve your problem. Ummmm. You could also try herbicides and blowtorches!

Growing zucchini takes up way too much space in windberry's flower garden, and it is such a hassle to pick almost everyday since it annoyingly productive... solution, don't grow zucchini. Buy some from a farmers market.

There's another thing you don't hear much in our Vegetable Gardening forum. If it's growing really well, gosh, don't grow it!

Thanks Lone Jack. The descriptions on the Net sound very interesting to me: "the Costata Romanesco was not bread to be a mass producer and will produce about half the yield of hybrid types", with "outstanding flavor and texture". This is exactly what I am looking for. Although I would like smaller plants, the size of the plant doesn't matter that much, I have a lot of room in my vegetable/flower garden. As I have already mentioned, in recent years I grew another heirloom, French this time, Ronde the Nice". I love it, but may be the Italian Romanesco will produce less! Thanks again.

@floral: Pay attention where heirloom Zucchinis are coming from. Zucchini plants like those countries climate!

As you recommend, Lone Jack, I will do also more search on Cocozelle type summer squash. May be I will find smaller plants as well.

Italian Heirloom varieties are considered the best quality by experts, but they do have large plants which you have repeatedly stated you didn't want. They are less productive than modern hybrids.

These links have reviews you can read.

Costata Romanesco

Striato d'Italia

I’m aware of where zucchini come from. They have an Italian name after all, although we actually call them courgettes here, rather than zucchini. The fact that there’s no English name indicates that they’re relatively new in British vegetable gardens. I never saw one until the sixties. Most of the Southern European varieties are not totally reliable in our climate. Plant breeders have had to produce cultivars more suited to our weather.