courgette help needed

[stella]

last year I grew 4 courgette plants,they had lots of leaves and flowers. The flowers produced small courgettes which started to grow and then turned yellow at the end and went soft and dropped off. I would like to produce an edible crop this year has anyone got any ideas what went wrong

[FionaH]

I moved this out of growing techniques so people can see it

[piskieinboots]

How much space did each of the plants have Stella?

They do need approx 3 foot each, if they didn't have enough space to stretch out this could possibly be the cause

[marathon]

Yes, they do need a lot of space and manure etc has they are heavy feeders

Whenb this happened to me a few years back the chap in the next plot suggested the flo
wers hadn't actually been pollunated. The fruit grow a little to make tiny fruit but if the flower wasn't pollunated the flower falls off and then the fruit.

The following year planted flowers around the plot and haven't had a problen since.

[Pumpkin Becki]

As marathon says, your immature courgettes dropped off because weren't pollinated.

Last year was a bit rubbish weather-wise (my crop was awful too), so I think Bumble Bees (the prime pollinators of curcubits) really struggled to do their job. You could try planting some Bumble Bee friendly flowers nearby to attract them to your courgettes, or failing that you could try to hand pollinate instead.

And I'll keep my fingers crossed for a better year this year.

[marathon]

...................... You could try planting some Bumble Bee friendly flowers nearby to attract them to your courgettes, or failing that you could try to hand pollinate instead.

And I'll keep my fingers crossed for a better year this year.

I save my own seed and hand pollunate my squashes,melons,cucumbers etc

It's really easy. I just pick a male flower strip down the outleaves and then rub it into the female flower. I then normally put an elastic band around it so that no bees etc can get in and leave for a few days.

Works for me.

[evie451]

this happened to me too, i grow some in really big pots and i had a couple in the raised bed..........i do get a lot of bees thanks to some lavender and cotton easter planted nearby so i had wondered if it was to do with the flower coming off, i noticed that if the flower wilted and didnt come off cleanly then the end of the courgette went yellow and it was worse if it had been wet, i hadnt had the problem before so i put it down to my soil being insufficient and the plant being susceptible to this or just a rubbish wet season.......

[stella]

I dont think it was a problem with polination as they produced cougettes which grew to about 7-8 ins long then the end start to turn yellow then they softened and dropped? Can you water too much? I fed once a week with tom food but only got 1 courgette.

[piskieinboots]

I'm not sure why the pollination bit came in as you had already said it produced small fruits - hence it was pollinated.

I go back to my query to you, was it (they) crowded out? As for water, they need a fair bit.

[evie451]

i do like courgettes and i had wondered whether it was a soil/compost issue as the ones i had in tubs i was trying on a peat free compost, although i fed them with tomato food they didnt do as well as the ones in the bed near the potatoes which had been manured....i am not sure if it was a variety issue as the ones near the tatties were the italian round type and the ones in pots were the standard ones or they were in a better position to not get this rotting problem because they were better fed.....so i am trying all of them again with my strawb compost/manure mixture to see what happens!

[stella]

It was the first year on a newly turned bed and the soil looked quite brown and crumbly. They did seem to have enough space and never filled the area they had, the leaves looked green and healthy and the stems were thick and sort of hairy. Lots of flowers then zilch. It had been an area of grass before, but with everyone saying they get flooded out with the fruit and have to give some away I would like some this year.

[rustylady]

Can't understand them going yellow at the ends at 7 - 8 inches long, this normally happens at around 3 - 4 inches. I normally try to cut mine around 6 inches - really tender and tasty.

[marathon]

I dont think it was a problem with polination as they produced cougettes which grew to about 7-8 ins long then the end start to turn yellow then they softened and dropped? Can you water too much? I fed once a week with tom food but only got 1 courgette.

oh in that case defo not lack of insects.

I would think it's blossom end rot which is where feeding comes in. This is mainly cased by a calcium deficiency in the soil so if add plenty of raganic matter to the pantng hole the problem should sort itself out.