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Female courgette flowers not maturing
Hi all,
I'm a courgette growing newbie and am struggling. I'm growing two Gold Rush courgette plants in large pots. (I have no choice as I have a patio garden). They are both in brand new organic compost, in a spot that gets about 7 hours of direct morning Sun per day. The leaves are about 8 inches across and the plant seems to be doing well.
They have been producing both male and female flowers for the last 3 weeks. The male flowers are maturing and opening but the female flowers are just staying the same size and staying green. I've been checking each day and keeping the plants well watered to avoid stress and powdery mildew but the female flowers simply will not mature. They haven't dropped off either so I don't think it's blossom drop, but male flowers that have grown after the females have overtaken the females, matured, flowered and wilted in the time that the females have been just sitting there staying the same size.
The female flower itself is about 1 cm big and the fruit behind it is about an inch big. So nowhere near big enough for me to peel open and hand pollinate. I'm not sure what to do. I've googled and found lots of articles about either a total lack of female flowers or blossom drop, but nothing like this where the female flowers have appeared but just seem to have stopped growing, frozen at the same size for weeks on end without either maturing and opening or dropping off. Any ideas? Any advice would be appreciated. It's already mid July and I haven't had a single courgette off them yet. Sad times.
I'm a courgette growing newbie and am struggling. I'm growing two Gold Rush courgette plants in large pots. (I have no choice as I have a patio garden). They are both in brand new organic compost, in a spot that gets about 7 hours of direct morning Sun per day. The leaves are about 8 inches across and the plant seems to be doing well.
They have been producing both male and female flowers for the last 3 weeks. The male flowers are maturing and opening but the female flowers are just staying the same size and staying green. I've been checking each day and keeping the plants well watered to avoid stress and powdery mildew but the female flowers simply will not mature. They haven't dropped off either so I don't think it's blossom drop, but male flowers that have grown after the females have overtaken the females, matured, flowered and wilted in the time that the females have been just sitting there staying the same size.
The female flower itself is about 1 cm big and the fruit behind it is about an inch big. So nowhere near big enough for me to peel open and hand pollinate. I'm not sure what to do. I've googled and found lots of articles about either a total lack of female flowers or blossom drop, but nothing like this where the female flowers have appeared but just seem to have stopped growing, frozen at the same size for weeks on end without either maturing and opening or dropping off. Any ideas? Any advice would be appreciated. It's already mid July and I haven't had a single courgette off them yet. Sad times.
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