Topic: male flowers on courgettes

[happygardner]

hello I seem to be on here a lot of the time now should I be gardening!!!!!!!
Back to subject should I remove the male flowers or should they stay on there  thanks lorraine

[PurpleHeather]

A lot of people stuff the courgette flowers and cook them as a delicacy in most of Europe. They need to be harvested quickly or they develop into leaves.

However in the UK people knock them off for no reason what so ever. Other than they do not produce fruit.

 
The bees will fertilise the females from the male flower and produce seeds in the female plants. However like cucumbers, most varieties do not rquire a male at all.

Some prefer their courgettes (French) Zucchini (Italian) Marrow (English) without seeds.. So, removing the male flower will prevent seeds in the female fruits. Not that this is important if the fruits are harvested small which is currently fashionable and the french name of Courgette is used for small English Marrows in the UK  

In the UK Marrows were allowed to grow large and were stored and used as food during the wars because they are a quick and easy to grow food plant and they store reasonably well.

It also makes them an ideal choice for children to teach them gardening. Especially as they grow well on a compost heap.

Recipes for stuffed flowers are available on the internet and they are becoming increasingly popular with discerning diners in London.

[OllieC]

What ph means is that you should leave them. You need boys to get babies.

[PurpleHeather]

What ph means is that you should leave them. You need boys to get babies.

I think most normal people realise that I could manage to say exactly that if that is what I mean.

You only need babies if you want to reproduce and you can leave that to the end of the season if you are saving seeds.

[plot51A]

My courgettes have just started to flower - white volunteer, romanescu, and tondo d'italia - they all have loads of female flowers and very few male. Past years its always been the other way round at first. I thought if they weren't fertilised the courgettes didn't grow, just shrivelled up and dropped off. Yes? No?

[OllieC]

My courgettes have just started to flower - white volunteer, romanescu, and tondo d'italia - they all have loads of female flowers and very few male. Past years its always been the other way round at first. I thought if they weren't fertilised the courgettes didn't grow, just shrivelled up and dropped off. Yes? No?

Yes.

[PurpleHeather]

Indeed????

[OllieC]

Well I'm always open to persuasion based on evidence, but every book you ever read, any trial you'd care to conduct & almost every person you ever talk to will tell you that you need the boys to get fruit. Not sure what ph means by "normal person" but that's a discussion for another time... no need to get personal, eh?!?!

[Toadspawn]

If you want courgettes you MUST have pollination, therefore you MUST leave male flowers on the plant. Bees will transfer pollen to the female flowers.

Without pollination the unfertilised imature courgette will turn yellow, shrivel up and die.

Flowers do NOT turn into leaves if left on the plant, they just die. 

[valmarg]

Well, we grow the variety Parthenon, which is parthenogenic, ie self-fertile, so you don't need the male flowers.  Sorry lads. ;D ;D

valmarg

[OllieC]

Well, we grow the variety Parthenon, which is parthenogenic, ie self-fertile, so you don't need the male flowers.  Sorry lads. ;D ;D

valmarg

I'm trying them (amongst others) for the second year & have found the plants to be very lacking in vigour! Have you had much luck with them yet?

[happygardner]

dear oh dear what have I started here I only wanted a simple yes or no I can feel the testerone from here haha I think that I will leave the little blighters on this could go on and on
lorraine

[Chrispy]

If the female is not fertilized, then the fruit will not swell, just drop off.
There are self fertile variates i.e. http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/322/1.html. but this is the exception.
Not all cucumbers are self fertile.

If you want to eat the flowers, pick them before they open

[valmarg]

Yes, Ollie, we've had very good results.  OH starts them off in the greenhouse, and keeps them in there until they are quite large plants.  Some are in large pots (10"), and others are planted direct into the ground.  The ones in the large pots are outside now, and are giving us a very good crop, but the ones in the ground are looking a little bit sad, but it has been very dry here for the past few weeks.  Tapwater is never quite so good for plants as rain.

On balance, I would recommend them.

valmarg

[PurpleHeather]

WTF

Ollie if this is your only problem I envy you.

There is a lot more important things to worry about. I just give a basic answer based on facts.

[valmarg]

Sorry, Chrispy, but with Parthenon, they do not need male fertilisation, they are self fertile.  The fruits do swell. and do not drop off.

There are other veg that are self fertile, french beans for one.

We are growing a new runner/french bean variety Moonlight.  It has the characteristics of a french bean, but looks like a runner bean, and is self fertile.  We have it growing in the greenhouse, and it is looking very good.

Whilst I would be the last person to want to get rid of the male of the species, they are not always essential. ;D ;D

valmarg

[Chrispy]

Sorry, Chrispy, but with Parthenon, they do not need male fertilisation, they are self fertile.  The fruits do swell. and do not drop off.

Thats what I said  :)

[redimp]

WTF

Ollie if this is your only problem I envy you.

There is a lot more important things to worry about. I just give a basic answer based on facts.

Yes, but apart from parthenon that Valmarg is growing, you are wrong and you need to keep the male flowers on courgettes or the courgette gets no bigger than about and inch long and very thin before it gives up the ghost, rots and drops off.  To get courgettes any bigger than this from most plants, they need fertilisation.  It is this desire to grow into marrows that makes them bigger and they will not do that unless they have fertile seeds to mature.  Courgettes are immature fertilised fruit.  Parthenon is self fertile.

[Jeannine]

Parthenon is one of the unusual  parthenogenic  ones because it doesn't have to wait for the bees to be flying to set fruit, useful as they can be fruiting before the bees are out  BUT....  these types of squash are a rarity.

To address The question in general..|Do I need the male flowers to pollinate my squash, definitely you do, if you remove the male flowers you  simply will not get fruit.It is the same for winter squash and pumpkins,, but not always cukes .

If you can tell me the name of your squash I can give you a precise answer in relation to the type you are growing if you are worried . however if it is  one of the  few parthenogenic  types it wouldn't generally grew male flowers.

In regular types,male flowers should come first,followed by the gals who are usually pollinated with the help of  the bees.

The pollen from the male flower has to be transferred to the female flower in order for the squash to grow, unfertilised fruits which are easily recognised at the base of a female flower , will drop off if the male pollen does not reach them. They will not turn into leaves. If I  were to grow squash in a greenhouse situation  where the bees couldn't reach them I  would have to hand pollinate .

XX Jeannine

[javahart]

Fight, fight, fight..........   ;D

You are both right in different ways, so lets leave it at that!