Courgette Question

[bananagirl]

Hi all, was wondering if I could pick your brains a bit. I'm sure I read something here about male and female courgette flowers, but I can't find it. My babies are doing great. I have fruit, and flowers without fruit. Do I need to pull them off, or leave them be?? I have no idea which is which, and am still surprised that they grew. Thankyou muchly! x

[bananagirl]

[rdak]

hi,
What I found last year was that I started off having loads of female flowers but no males. Fruit formed as large rounded courgettes but then rotted and died- apparently this is because the flower was not pollinated. Later in the season, The plant developed male flowers and I had loads of fruit. Some people leave it to nature, others take a more direct approach and when both flowers are open (noon is best time, I believe), pick the male flower and, ahem, insert into the female.

Here's a useful page -scroll to the bottom to see a diagram of male and female flowers on a courgette plant:

http://www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/L232.htm

[bananagirl]

Thanks Ross, I'm going to go and look at my plants and figure out what they're doing. I've got some fruit happening, but the more the merrier. Can't wait til they're big enough to eat!

[tim]

Never interfere & we average 20-25 per plant? Even the ones in the greenhouse are performing OK.
Rotting is often a chill or similar.

Try http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0702/courgette_failure.asp = Tim

[derbex]

My experience is the same as Tim's. The only time we get rotting is when they don't get enough water, and that's because I persist in putting them in a hot, dry flowerbed.

Jeremy

[ina]

Thanks for the links Ross and Tim. Very interesting.

[feet of clay]

I'm currently on the courgette diet.  There's only me and I can't find enough people to give them to!  Shame dogs don't like 'em.