Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi. At the moment I have six courgette plants growing on my allotment. My question is do I leave the male flowers on or should I pick them off?? Also when the courgettes start to form (1 to 2 inches long) they turn yellow and drop off, can anyone tell me why, please.

I think you leave the male flowers on for courgettes although you can pick them for deep frying in batter.

I also think it's this wet weather that's stopping them developing properly. You need fine days for the insects to flit around doing their stuff and less rain to stop them rotting off

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Off to China

I leave my flowers on and I have had lots of courgettes

I'm wondering about putting a Bell cloche over one of mine to see if that speeds it up a bit

lots of mine are going yellow/rotting too - I wondered if it was because they were lying on damp ground, so Ive put some sraw under them (as with strawberries...) - dont know the result yet though!

You need to leave the male flowers on as without them the females don't get pollinated and the courgettes can't grow. I always get a few that go rotten at the beginning of the season and that's because there's not so many male flowers around to pollinate them. They can grow a bit without pollination but then stop and go rotten.

Also don't put a cloche over them as this will stop the insects getting to them to do the pollinating!

Good luck

i always take the female flower from the end of the courgette to prevent rotting

"don't put a cloche over them as this will stop the insects getting to them to do the pollinating!"

Good point. I'll get the big bell cloche, with integral bee-hive, out instead

Where are you in the country Alistair. You can go into your personal profile and show us.
No need to take the male flowers off - they're needed for pollination. I just remove flowers that are spent.
Your courgettes are probably rotting because they haven't been pollinated. Has the weather been good? Are the bees buzzing about them?
If you're short of pollinators you can do it yourself by going round all the flowers and giving them a tickle in the middle with a little artists paint brush - but they'll probably do it themselves when the weather is warm and dry. Good luck.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Thanks for the advice Alice. Will change my info when I figure out how to do it ( bit of a technophobe)!!! Noticed you are in Scotland. I am in Suffolk (hope my name didn't throw you!), where the weather has been strange to say the least. Will leave for a few more days and then it'll be off to the artists shop! Once again thanks for taking the time to reply, Alastair