Courgettes - where are they?

[fitzsie]

Have grown from seed some courgettes that the National Trust were giving out. They all took off and have grown well in the garden producing lots of flowers but no courgettes !! They were originally covered by a net which is now gone. Did this stop the plants pollinating or should I have done something with them myself. ( back of my mind something about male & female plants !!)
I have some courgettes plants that I bought in our local market which have produced a few courgettess and which required no help - they have never been covered.
The NT plants are still flowering, can I do anything?

[fitzsie]

[Robert_Brenchley]

If it was very small mesh it would have stopped pollinators getting to the flowers. On the other hand, there's still plenty of time.

[Bill Door]

Sorry Robert but I think I have your courgettes.

They are nice though!

Perhaps you might get mine next year  8)

Bill

[Bill Door]

Sorry both got it arouind the wrong way.  More haste less speed.

Anyway Fitzsie  your courgettes are better than Roberts!!

Bill

[fitzsie]

Would like to say that the courgettes I did grow were very successful but the yellow one I picked was the size of my little finger and I have only managed to pick two of the small round ones as the others rotted before i could pick them. I ate them all in one meal !!!! :D

That will teach me to print of a recipe for courgette chutney!!! Ever the optimist!!

[Robert_Brenchley]

You can't have worse courgettes than me. I didn't plant any!

[lottie lou]

All mine have done since planting out is sit and sulk.  Got nowt.

[saddad]

If you have a spare wheelbarrow....  :-X

[Digeroo]

Can I borrow the wheelbarrow please.

[Alex133]

They may just be slow getting going - usually the problem is too many not too few.

[royforster]

I often have to hand pollinate my courgettes. If you look at the base of each flower, some have a baby courgette - they are the females. The males just have a straight stem. The tiny courgettes which fail to grow properly are the unfertilised ones. So you should do it by hand. When you have both male and female flowers open at the  same time, pick a male one and remove the petals. The yellow "thingy" you have left in the middle is the male sexual parts. Insert this into the centre of each female plant and tickle it anout. Within a few days, you should have expanding courgettes.

[antipodes]

Mine were very slow this year but just a rainy period followed by a bit of sun has done them the world of good, they are sprouting new fruit at a tremendous pace. Once they start they will easily produce one or two edible courgettes every 3 or 4 days!

[fitzsie]

Just had a look at mine..... lots of flowers on straight stems which must be the male ones. I don't have any flowers on baby courgettes as such but what I do have are a bunch of flower buds close to the the main stem. No sign of them flowering, small and green at mo. I'm hoping these are the females. With the good spell of weather we are going to have this weekend (al last) then maybe they might do something !! Typical, only work every other weekend and guess what I'm doing this weekend........

[antipodes]

Usually once they get that clump of buds forming, they will start making fruit. But in that case you would be wise to try and pop down in about a week to see if fruit is forming...