Courgette problems, again, sorry!

**Thelma Sanders** · 24-08-2011, 06:10 PM

Tis the old problem, lack of pollination

Have you tried pollinating them by hand....(That sounds soo wrong

)

I think it's just easiest to insert the male flower into the female one and wiggle it a bit

**Shadylane** · 24-08-2011, 11:10 PM

Isn't taxi a self polinating F1 variety. Our neighbours had a yellow un last year and told us to remove the male flowers to increase production (we didn't as ours were open pollinated) I've been removing the males on the Taxi we're growing this year and they grow fine, though recently I noticed a few rotted. Has it got plenty of sun and space? Good soil? How big is the plant? Is it still young or well established?

**Thelma Sanders** · 25-08-2011, 03:11 PM

It's f1, but it's not one of those that sets fruit without pollination

**cardiffsteve** · 25-08-2011, 03:28 PM

Its in a large pot with good mpc. its about 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide.
When i transplanted it into a pot the stem wasn't that strong so i gave it support.
The rot seems to happen when the courgettes are about 2-3inches long.
Some of them are ok and some are rotting

**realfood** · 25-08-2011, 06:12 PM

It is important in wet or damp weather, to remove the withered remains of the flower once the fruit has set. This stops the rot starting at the end.

**horticultural_hobbit** · 25-08-2011, 06:17 PM

Shadylane would make sense to me. Claude the Courgette, is an F1 Astia. I have only ever seen two bloke flowers, and these disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Generally, there are nice sized courgettes that appear. The only time they don't is when the weather has been a weird and wonderful. I'm intrigued as to what will happen when I try a non f1 next year.

**cardiffsteve** · 25-08-2011, 06:35 PM

Silly question,
How do i tell male from female flowers?

**bethduckie** · 25-08-2011, 06:39 PM

Females are close to the stem, on a small swollen knobbly bit (this will eventually become the courgette) and the males are on long thin stalks.

**horticultural_hobbit** · 25-08-2011, 06:40 PM

Girl bits will have a baby courgette behind them, that once pollinated will start to swell. Boy flowers don't have anything but a stem behind them. Same for the rest of the curcurbit family.

**BroadRipple** · 25-08-2011, 07:40 PM

2 futher courgette questions...and what to do when I only seem to have male flowers on several of my plants? is cross-pollinating with another variety/species's male flower better than nothing at all?

and sorry, just to clarify: one of my courgettes - not sure which kind, green round striped pingpong ball size fruits before they rot - also starts rotting before getting any bigger. but the round fruits made me assume pollination was taking place. do you think, oh as yet unnamed curcurbit sage out there on the netosphere, i was wrong, and they were just waiting for some studly male pollen? is it the same problem as CardiffSteve's?

**horticultural_hobbit** · 25-08-2011, 07:46 PM

Sage grapes have advised that any member of the curcubit family should be all right. Bruno the ghost rider pumpkin for instance as third cousin twice removed pollinated Gladys the BNS. Good grief that sounds horrendous.

And ping pong ball type courgettes? I'm hopefully going to try round one's next year too. I think they can swell, get a certain size and then give up the ghost. If there is successful pollination, then courgettes do get bigger and become courgettes proper.

**Florence Fennel** · 25-08-2011, 07:48 PM

I think you're going to have to wait for the females to come along because they bear the fruit. It wouldn't be any good pollinating a male flower with a male flower

, because you still wouldn't get fruit. Unless I've got the wrong end of your stick, which is never hard for me to do. As for the rotting off problem, I think you'd better wait for an unnamed curcurbit sage out there on the netosphere, because I don't know the answer to that.

**Shadylane** · 25-08-2011, 10:29 PM

Originally posted by cardiffsteve View Post

Its in a large pot with good mpc. its about 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide.
When i transplanted it into a pot the stem wasn't that strong so i gave it support.
The rot seems to happen when the courgettes are about 2-3inches long.
Some of them are ok and some are rotting

They do sometimes abort fruits but it could just be a lack of pollination. I don't grow em in pots as they did rubbish the first time I grew them. They'd appreciate a tomato feed if in pots I would think.

**cardiffsteve** · 26-08-2011, 10:48 AM

Thanks for the advice, I shall pollinate by hand and remove flowers when courgettes appear.
I think another problem is I didnt name my plants

Bruno, Gladys,

Forgot Claude

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Courgette problems, again, sorry!

Courgette problems, again, sorry!

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