Hi Maureen – Cucumbers and squash flowers need to be pollinated. Most of the time Mother Nature takes care of this via bees and other pollinators. If your plants are producing male and female flowers but are dying off without any fruit, then it’s mostly due to a lack of pollination and a lack of pollinators.

You can hand pollinate them by transferring the pollen from male flowers to the female flowers using a very small paint brush, or plant flowers and herbs throughout your yard that attract bees.

I would like to know about the flowers on my cucumbers and squash. They produce many flowers, they open, and then die but not any veggies.
What should I do to change this situation? Thank you, Maureen from Florida

Hi Jennifer – the true leaves should appear within a couple weeks. What variety the plant is and growing conditions can affect the growth rate, but generally two weeks is plenty of time for the true leaves to appear.

How long does it take for the first true leaves to appear on peppers, and zucchini?

Hi Erin – I’m glad you have started seeds and they are sprouting! There is no need to pinch off the cotyledons, just let them be. Once the true leaves of the plant “take over” the cotyledons will die off on their own.

Thanks for your question and for stopping by!

Hi there!
I’ve just started seeds for the first time (yay!) – tomato, pepper, cantelope and Brussels sprouts. Your post here has been tremendously helpful – thank you! Almost all of my seedlings have begun to come up, but now I need to know whether or not to pinch off the cotyledons… I’m sure I was told to do so in the past, but I can’t recall if that applied to vegetables too. Please advise.
Thanks!
Erin

Generally they are OK until they start to fall over. Once they fall over they will die. If you can get them to proper lighting before they get so leggy they fall they can recover.

I am having the same problem as George and myine are long and skinny. I moved them to where there is more light is there still hope for them?

Hi George – What kind of plants are they? Did you start them indoors, or outdoors? Are they tall and leggy, or as wide as they are tall?

I started several plants from seed. However, I don’t think I’m doing too well because they have not started their true leaves yet. What can I be doing wrong? They are about 4″ tall now.