by Cihan Kayis
(Australia)
To whom it may concern. I have a problem relating with my squash plants. I am growing yellow button squash and are spraying them with chemicals and feeding them with calcium nitrate and potassium sulfate. The plants have been producing yellow button squash for about 4 picks, however, i went to pick my produce today and the fruit was a pale green.
Someone suggested giving the fruit some magnesium sulfate but that only seemed to make matters worse!. I am also growing zuchinis near by.
The colour on the squash is similar to the colour of the zuchinis. Someone suggested that bees cross pollinating between the two are responsible for this phenomena. Could you please help me a.s.a.p. Thank you
Drought Smart Plants reply: I couldn’t show the pictures here as they are copyrighted.
I would agree that this phenomenon would have been caused by bees cross pollinating the squash of different kinds – the fact that these are closely related types will mean the squash will still be edible, unlike the same thing happening with cross pollination with pumpkins or cucumbers, which can make an otherwise nice looking fruit totally unpalatable.
There is nothing you can do about this, except to grow your different varieties further apart, with other crops in between to lessen the chance of the bees traveling between them.
Best of luck with your squash!
Jacki
