Edited 8/6/2022: I may have been somewhat hasty in my original post. I removed the insect barrier. As expected, I am now getting full-sized summer squash. But the largest of these, so far, has only a vestige of seeds. For all intents and purposes, it’s seedless. To me, this suggests that, at some point, these squash plants did indeed begin producing full-sized fruit despite a lack of pollination. Perhaps they have to produce a handful of tiny ones first, before they give up on getting pollinated and begin producing full-sized parthenocarpic fruit.
The original post follows.
One tiny detail. The seed packets for parthenocarpic squash failed to mention one tiny, little detail.
Looking on the bright side, you know how summer squash will go from small to gigantic before you know it? One day they’re barely edible, three days later they’re barely liftable?
Or how you can be inundated with zucchini, to the point where you have to keep dreaming up new ways to cook it? Where you start figuring out ways to hide it in food, so that your family won’t object.
The good news is, parthenocarpic squash have both of those problems licked.
They’re tiny. Unless a miracle happens, my parthenocarpic summer squash are going to weigh in somewhere around one ounce each.
If you’re interested, read on. Or just check the photos below. Continue reading Post G22-050: Parthenocarpic squash, is this a joke?