Squash

We don’t know why the plant is twisting — never heard of it happening before in 50 years of growing vegetables. However, we can help you with flowers and no fruit. It sounds like your female flowers aren’t getting pollinated. I’m sure you have heard that there has been a 30% decline in honeybees worldwide. Without bees and other pollinators the female flowers don’t get pollinated and produce fruit. If you were to carefully look at your plants you will see very large yellow flowers and a few smaller flowers. Look behind the smaller flowers and you will see a small fruit. Once the female flower gets pollinated the tiny fruit in back of the flower will swell and produce viable seeds and the fruit that surrounds the seeds. If the flower doesn’t get pollinated the plant knows that there are no viable seeds inside and the small fruit drops off and the plant produces another female flower hoping to get pollinated. No bees — no fruit.

You will need to start planting flowers that attract bees and the bees will visit both the planted flowers and your squash. Hyssop (Agastache), African Blue Basil, marigolds, are just a few to attract bees. Let us know how things work out.