Topic: Rogue courgette

[pigeonseed]

A rogue courgette grew uninvited on one of my squash beds! By strange coincidence. I let it grow to see what it would be, and it looks like a bulbous Lebanese courgette. It's the biggest, healthiest squash plant of the lot and it has had to fend totally for itself.

I ate the first fruit and it's very nice! I'm dying to save some seed from it, as it's obviously rather robust and tolerant of cold sea winds, and droughts followed by deluges.

I should have taken a photo but I was too greedy and ate it before I thought of that!  ;D

The thing is I need to catch a female flower before it opens, but whenever I sneak up on it, its flowers are all open...  ::)

[saddad]

Bag one the day before!   ::)

[Jeannine]

This made me laugh.. maybe you should wear soft slippers and tread softly..kind of like squash rape.

Good luck.. we want to know the outcome

XX Jeannine

[Alex133]

Make sure you take a photo of the next one!

[Jayb]

 ;D it sounds worth the effort, good luck with your courgette quest.

[Digeroo]

I am sure it will grow some more courgettes.    If  you let one grow into a marrow for seeds it will stop producing more. 

Not clear on why you need to isolate it, so you have a particular father in mind.  Unless you have two it will have to have another father. 

I once had a fantastic lebanese courgette rogue but unfortunately it was before my days of seed saving.  My experiece of them is they are very disease resistant and do not get mildew.  And often turn out to be the last man standing.

[pigeonseed]

I want to pollinate it with itself ( :-X) otherwise who knows what will be produced next year. There were no unopened female flowers on it whenever I've been there, so nothing to bag!

I won't give up though!  ;D

[pigeonseed]

I trudged to the plot today in the driving rain, and there was an unopened female flower, so I pollinated it with a male flower from the same plant and bagged it.

Hope it works. Three ripe today and had lovely stuffed courgette for tea. They're an excellent shape for stuffing because they can stand up on their own bottoms  :-X

[1066]

You went to the plot yesterday in that rain and wind  :o  :o  :o
For once I didn't go out, except to pick the Turmeric plants out of the pond where the wind had blown them  :-X

great looking courgettes by the way  ;D

[pigeonseed]

You went to the plot yesterday in that rain and wind.  :o :o :o

I know - I was the only one there!  ::) It's the only chance I get to go, once a weekend, my OH looks after the children, so I never turn it down because of the weather!  ;D

[1066]

aaahhh, that explains it - and there was I thinking blimey there's a courgette nutter on the loose in Hastings  :D

[pigeonseed]

oh yeah that as well!

My stab at courgette tampering didn't work- I bagged it with a plastic bag and it rotted  :(
I'll try to remember to keep some paper bags with me, in case I get another chance.

while I was away on holiday, this is how big those dainty little courgettes get in one week. It's the huge yellow thing at the front that looks like a honeydew melon:

[1066]

 :o    :o    :o     :o     :o

Hope you had a lovley holiday  :)

[pigeonseed]

I did.

I visited relatives who like gardening and we went to see some posh gardens. I got lots of ideas (for the flowering bit).

Nice to be home though. How big would that courgette be if I was away longer?!  :o