be able to help me pleeeeese. :'( :'( :(
We are trying to grow courgettes, the flowers are dropping off on 1 plant something is eating half the courgettes, on anothe the third has flowers on but for how long. What do i feed them on & how much.
I watched River Cottage last night & Hugh , said how many kilos he is hoping to get, well i would be lucky to get half a dozen courgettes at this rate.
Any help gratefully recieved.
Not overly an expert. Sounds like they are drying out. Keep the soil well fed and moist and maybe mulch with compsost or well rotted cow poo.
Rosebud some of our courgettes are goin all mushy at the ends. Its happening on all the plants so me thinks perhaps it something to do with the weather.BTW I love your avatar
i was told last year they were the ones that didnt get fertalised
lbb
Quote from: shirlton on June 25, 2009, 19:48:45
Rosebud some of our courgettes are goin all mushy at the ends. Its happening on all the plants so me thinks perhaps it something to do with the weather.
Hi Rosebud, I feed mine like tomatoes we're growing them on our muck heap.They were very slow to start but are now fine bet yours will be the same :)How do you get those fab animated avita and name ?Im not very good on my computer but willing to learn :)
Thanks LBB. That what ower Tone said but I didn't believe him.
Thanks peeps for your help it seems the problem is food & water by the sounds of it, so i shall remedy that tomorrow.
The avatar, thanks shirl. Macmac, my daughter is the clever one , i shall ask her to PM, you ok. ;D
Courgettes need loads of compost or manure, I give mine at least a bucket load per plan and another bucket full as mulch later. They are quite happy with poorly rotted compost. A bucket of green slimey stuff would do them fine. We have too much grass clipping in the compost at home and I feed this to the courgettes.
At this time of year the bees and beetles do not necessarily do a good job, so it is worth going round and fertilzing the female flowers, the ones with a little courgette attached.
Also I find that the first fruit do tend to be small. But then I keep eating them. The unfertilized fruit tends to shrivel and get a brown bit down the middle.
I have in the past had problems with mice eating courgettes, and slugs eating the whole plant. Some varieties are more susceptible to slug attach. I have found they particularly like Romanesco, Bolognese, Magda. But my favourite clarita I have found to generally be slug resistance as is Lungo Bianco, Gold Rush.
My 2d's worth.
One of my courgette plants has been slower than the others to produce fruit, the first five flowers have just shriveled up and dropped off. The reason; they were all male, they did their business and have now dropped off. Now it has some female buds coming up.
Slugs are also the enemy, they love the embryonic fruit at the base of female flowers and will frequently eat it off completely. Last year they devistated my squash crop, until several days of hand removal allowed the plant to get on top: three buckets full of slugs. Slugs have been very tame, here, so far this year, but it is very dry this year., at least here.
Water, they need loads of it, they hate dry soil.
A lot will also depend on variety. Before a fruit can set there has to be both male and female flowers open at the same time. Usually the plant produces mostly male flowers at the beginning but it is variable.
Some varieties are already producing courgettes but most are still just playing and do not come on stream until mid to late July. Keep the plants in good health and they will produce. If the summer is as hot as predicted, courgettes will once again become a joke as we all try to give them away.
Mine certainly look set for a bumper crop, they've already provided a couple of meals and the plants are still young.
For anyone not used to crowing courgettes, remember not to let the fruit get too large, if the plant thinks it has successfully set seed it will stop producing.
Last year I noticed woodlice were beginning to eat the end of my courgettes where they touched the ground - possibly holes started by slugs. I put some dried couch grass under them to lift them off the ground and the munching stopped. This year I'll be putting straw under them.
Robin
Slugs love the young plants, so it's a good idea to protect them till they get established. ASnd we#ve foound that the first few fruit don't get pollinated by the male flowers, and so they shrivel and die. Once they start producing plenty of flowers (male and female open together) the fruit will start to appear.
I always worry needlessly at the start of the season, but very quickly find we have a glut. :) :) :) :) :)
Welcome to A4A Bertie/Robin :)
I seem to recall reading somewhere that courgettes/marrows often throw out male flowers to start with but things usually settle down and you'll start getting the female flowers and courgettes. I took 3 little baby ones home last night - yum. Favourite ones are the yellow ones though.
twinkletoes
You can dodge all the fertilisation problems by growing "Cavili" from T & M. It's pale green with a lovely creamy texture and is parthenocarpic, i.e. it doesn't need insect pollination to set fruit. The slugs will probably still eat them though! ::)
I'm growing Cavili for the first time, and the plant on my compost heap has produced edible sized fruits where my other plants are just starting with tiddlers. Interesting taste and texture, almost creamy, I will definitely grow some more next year! ;D