[Russell Atterbury]

The first female flower on one of the my tromboncino plants opened this morning. It's on a fruit that has grown to about 6" long. But I don't see any male flowers on the four plants I have, so I was wondering if my fruits can actually succeed under these circumstances?

[JayG]

It's not unusual for squash plants to produce flowers of only one sex at any given time, but you're unlucky to have that situation given you've improved the odds by having 4 plants.

If you have other types of squashes nearby with male flowers you might have been lucky and your tromboncino has received pollen from one of them - if not, the fruit will abort and start rotting before it gets much bigger.

As far as I know there's not much you can do to make your plants feel more 'in the mood' - they usually come good in the end although the wait can be a bit frustrating. 

[Russell Atterbury]

JayG, does that mean I could use the male flower from regular orange colour pumpkin, or even yellow courgette. There is a chance one of those is flowering today.

[JayG]

Yes, it should work - most squashes readily cross pollinate with each other (but not with cucumbers) although some crosses work better than others (best chance is probably with the courgettes rather than the pumpkins.)

(Don't save the seeds to sow next year though, as the results would be very unpredictable - DD has a picture somewhere of his hybrid squashes!)

[Russell Atterbury]

Sods law has it, that the only decent flower today was on the pumpkin. But JayG, the job is done and i'll remember to post the outcome of this experiment. Ain't life grand.

[JayG]

If the female flower is more than a day or two old it's probably past being receptive to pollen, particularly if the stigma in the middle is starting to shrivel and dry.

Always worth a try though. 

[Russell Atterbury]

The female flower opened only this morning JayG. I had been waiting for some days to see what happens in the cycle of tromboncino, being new to me etc. For a few days I saw a wierd looking thing like a large insect on the end of the fruit, then today a beautiful and normal looking squash flower had burst forth. Thanks for the advice. It has to be worth a go. Worrying that on four plants there is no indication of a male flower as yet, while young fruits are everywhere, a lot like cucumber grow.

[Russell Atterbury]

An early update that pleases me to report, is that the trick of JayG's to put a bit of male pumpkin inside my female tromboncino has paid off amazingly. The fruit is now almost three times bigger by the look of it. On the down side it seems that my tromboncino girls are LGBT symathisers, not a male in sight and it's looking like I will have to continue with the outside impregnation.....wanting some fruit and all.