Hand pollinate? It's very easy, especially the squash.

I can relate; I have tomatoes that not only aren't fruiting, they're not even blooming. My best producers are the ones I planted last year. I should have thought to hand-pollinate the squash; they're not producing either. One cuke is ablaze with blooms, but I don't see any little cucumbers yet. Yep, such are the vagaries of city gardens: Optimism meets reality.

it's common at first for the male flowers to come out then the females will follow i allways get a few aborted at 1st then they'll polinate before u know it u'll be giving them away

The first year I was here, I didn't have many bee's..now I have what seems like too many sometimes. I planted lots of pollinator type flowers and trees..it really works well, they are drawn to all the flowers and take care of the veggies as well. Everything out there is covered with flowers and fruit. Also everything under shade cloth right now as well..but all doing great.

I noticed quite a few bees this morning, but I'm sad to say, I have found three dead carpenter bees in the last couple of days. I'm worried.

My cukes are just getting flowers finally but we have been harvesting squash for a week or two now, the first flowers did nothing but then the second batch of flowers produced a ton of squash. I agree with quotetheraven.. I put some flowers around the garden and it seems to be attracting a ton of bees and hummingbirds which seems to be helping the veggies.
Good Luck! So much fun gardening in this heat :)

I also have many flowers on my Armenian cucumber and it is growing like gangbusters, but no cukes. The zucchini has flowered a couple of times, but no squash yet. Tomatoes are doing fine!...I wonder if I need to hand pollinate the cukes...

I'm about to give up. The squash leaves look 'moldy', the blossoms aren't producing any squashes; the cucumbers have been covered in blooms with evidence of only a couple of little 'pickles'; and - worse yet - almost every bean plant seems to have fusarium wilt. One tomato has completely succumbed to wilt and, wouldn't you know it, it's the one covered with tomatoes. I am so ready to move to another climate. :(

My garden is very small and only has two each of yellow squash, gold rush zucchini and Armenian cucumbers. To encourage pollinators I sowed a row of sunflowers and still have a Mexican Flame Vine there that I got from either tomatofreak or M McP. They seem to keep the pollinators happy as that tiny garden has lots of activity from bees, bugs, hummers and other birds. Have gotten 6 squash and 6 zucchini so far and there are tons of flowers and itty bitty fruit on the cukes so for whatever reason the pollinators are doing a good job.

I have too many sunflowers to count; they all self-seeded last year and I let them grow up over plants that need shade. And I have an abundance of bees and wasps. I put drinking cups for the birds - and, it turns out, for the bees and wasps - next to the veggie tubs. I got bean transplants from 2 different sources. The purple pod beans are healthy, the others (from a well-known nursery we all like to frequent) are the ones with the wilt. Two or three tomato plants have never made a single bloom; what's the reason for that? To add insult to injury, one appears to now be wilting, too. It's supposed to be a white tomato.
The eggplants appear to be setting fruit, so I have my fingers crossed; so far they look quite healthy.

If anyone finds the answer let me know. I live in Phoenix. My zucchini and cucumbers have no fruit. The plants are weak and a little on the yellow side. I only have tomatoes on one plant. My sunflowers are nearing 12ft. I have one bean pod. No peas. 3 ears of corn forming. In short the veggie plants are not producing. I have bees, I used vinegar water to amend the soil and everything is fertilized. I don't know what else to try.

I wish I knew the answer. I pulled up some crispy bean plants and a dead tomato this morning. The only clues I have are these: Beans are from three different sources; soil is different in containers; exposure is different, east and west, but all have shade of some sort. And I have fertilized, taking care not to overdo it. A few days ago, I worked in some steer manure in one bed just to see if it makes any difference at all.

My question to those of you who *are* having success is this: are you starting plants from seed or are you using transplants?

P.S. Where can I get a Mexican Flame Vine in Phoenix? I tried to grow it by seed, but no luck.

I recently added high phos bar guano and gypsum to my tomatoes. They look a lot better. I use fish emulsion and seaweed weekly. I also give them some ironite every month or two.
I need to throw some of that guano on my rattlesnake beans , Armenians and trombocinos as they are just coming into bloom.
My less valuable plants, I tend to use Milorganite. I really like it and see quick results.
I have found ironite is essential in my gardens.

Oh, I start everything from seed. This is the first year I've had any luck with beans. Seems rattlesnake beans do better in our heat than other green beans. I usually just grow long beans as they do really well here. And, cowpeas, red rippers or pink eyes. I'm going to try some different types of cowpeas and new long beans this year. Planting in a week when I get home from vacation.
I have trombocino squash growing and it seems pretty hardy. Last year I grew costata romanesca which did very well, too.
Cushaw and butternut does well here for winter squash.

Years ago, I had cowpeas (blackeye peas to us Southerners) and they got hit by aphids on an apocalyptic level. This year, however, I thought I'd try again. Not one seed came up. In fact, not one bean seed of any kind that I planted germinated.

Thanks for the tips on fertilizers and Ironite. I'm sure my squash plants need the iron.

I also started everything but the strawberries from seed this spring. Cukes are growing well, squash is producing, beans looking great.

Funny, I planted cowpeas for the first time this year, and they are the one thing that germinated without a hitch. Of course, the birds saw the little heads popping out of the ground and promptly plucked them out, so I had to start over, but even the second time around, I had 100% germination. My long beans on the other hand are quite chlorotic, not growing well at all, and have been quite a disappointment.

We ate our first eggplant from the garden on the weekend (yum!) and I've been picking tomatoes for a couple of weeks. I do have one tomato plant with no fruit, but I've let it sprawl and it's doing a nice job of being "mulch" for some other garden plants.

Sam! Hello. Hello. Nice to see you on the board.

You may have gotten that mexican hat plant from me, I had a huge bush but when I found it full of grasshoppers that puppy got pulled out. I hate hoppers.

My tomatoes are about done for this season. I'll cut all the branches back and see if they make it through the summer and spring back in fall. [pardon the pun!!]

I cannot get a bean to germinate to save my life. Nor the armenian cukes. Nor the okra. Squash are doing well: zucchini, summer crook neck, and spaghetti. Hot peppers are starting to set fruit although the kung pao chile has given me a couple of fruit. At least the bugs don't bother the hot pepper plants. Chiltepins are just coming in. Yayyy. I love those but so do the birds. I cover the bush with an old wire enclosure thingy from an air conditioning unit. Works great.

I will begin germinating tomato seed soon for fall planting. I'm planning on mostly short DTM's - less than 60 days for the most part. I'll be selling seedlings around August so stay tuned.

i planted seeds saved from last years yardlong beans and okra and everything came up perfect yardlongs are just starting to flower and i've gotten 4 okra allready my armanian cukes came up all by themselves i didn't even plant them seeds from the overgrown hider came up and i've been eating cukes for a couple weeks allready

goodt4me and mary mcp - I think a long, long time ago Tomatofreak tried to help me grow Mexican Flame Vine from seed unsuccessfully. Mary McP gave me a cutting and that is what I have now although when I got my current job my garden was left to the tender mercies of DH, aka Destructo, and it had a setback when Destructo did not connect the beautiful flowers with hummers and butterflies buzzing around it with the brown stem sticking out of the ground. He cut it off at the base. I cried.

And then!, a couple of years later when I started trying to grow squash during my weekends, there must have been enough water to rejuvenate my little MFV. It is growing wonderfully again. If I can get a cutting to sprout for you the way Mary did one for me I will give it a try.

Boy - that cutting probably came from Rodica. I love following our plants back to generous friends! Currently, I am giving away LOTS of passion vine (which orignally came from JudyB)....OMG, that plant is like bermuda grass!

I got MFV from my neighbor, cuttings and seeds, and guess what? I don't have any now! Plants come and go and it's discussions like this that remind me of failures. McP, I'd love a PV or two to try again. They never behaved like Bermuda in my yard and, like the MFV, they're gone, too.

TF, next time I dig up some babies I'll have one or two for you. We'll figure out a way to get it to you.

Just let me know; I'm mobile. ;o)

I have now gotten two cukes from my Armenian plant. It is beautiful and HUGE!! Tons of leaves, vines, flowers. But most of the cukes stall out at the size of a string bean. I water everyday, they are under 30% shade cloth, and once in a while I put some miracle-gro veggie fert on them.

Any suggestions anyone??? I want more cucumbers...they were divine!

Every cucumber plant and every squash plant have expired, given up the ghost, crumpled to ash. Did I get one cucumber? No. One squash? Yes. One. I have one plant that is a mystery; don't know if it is - shortly to be *was* - a squash or a melon of some kind. It had huge, silvery leaves and bloomed profusely, but never made a single fruit. Today it looks like it is joining the others in that great dead plant graveyard known as compost. :(

This is the mystery plant. It's beautiful, but you can see that the leaves are beginning to get thin spots, sunburn maybe?

Tomato freak, I was away from my garden for a week and just went out to see that a zucchini is actually growing!! I guess they either take a long time, or were waiting for the monsoon. Thre are also 3 armenian cukes starting up.

I use Thrive weekely on the Veggies. Also every other week I use a blood/bone meal mixture on anything that has started to bloom/bud; it seems to really push things on through. The week I don't use the bb mix I use fish imulsion. So far, have some of the most beautiful,abundant peppers I have ever grown. Still getting some tomato's as well, mostly the cherry. The orka was awesome till a wind storm blew a 12 foot 2x4 into them and smashed them. Have about 50% shade up right now. I think all of the above has made a huge difference. Almost everything is growing in almost pure compost, that's all I ever refresh with in the raised beds. I love that Thrive, I know it's been a huge help.

What's with the collapsing squash plants?! I picked up a squash and a pumpkin at Bakers a few weeks ago, hoping for at least a few crooknecks. It looked fine and grew to about twice its size - and then it collapsed. Kapooie. The pumpkin looks OK, at least for now. Anyone have any idea why these plants just lie down and die?

quotetheraven, By "Thrive" are you talking about "Super Thrive" or something else?

Yes, "Super Thrive" I really like it and use a lot of it. It seems to help with the plants stressing from various things. I have noticed a difference from last year, when I didn't use it, to this year, which I think is even hotter. Course, I'm older, lol, and maybe it's just me. The heat has just seemed pretty intense this year.

collapsing squash = Squash borers