Cucurbit Oddness

[Maf]

I started some seeds off in a heated propagator in february.

Never grown squashy things before (spose it was a bit early!)

Anyway most snuffed it, so I put the remaining four plants in with another batch of seeds and promptly forgot what exactly they were.

Could be Butternut Hunter, Courgette Midnight or Courgette Gold Rush.

Anyway they still have their seed leaves along with about 5 proper leaves.

They seem to be developing what look like flower buds

Is this normal

[Maf]

Well after a stunning response to my post

Here is a picture of a 3inch pot.

Is this normal ? (the flowers, not the pot )

[momol]

Don't know if it is normal or not, Maf but they do looks like male flowers.

[shirlthegirl43]

I would say it is pretty early but they are male flowers so plenty time for you to get a crop yet. The female flowers always seem to take forever to appear. Well done you, looks like you got lucky with that one on the early sowing.

[kethry]

it looks like a courgette to me, but i've only grown the butternut once and that was as an experiment late last summer to see if a seed from a supermarket one would germinate (it did).

whoever it was said they're male flowers, they're quite right. i think they're responding to the warmth of your home, you'll have to harden them off properly before they go out (and not before your last frost date) - keep an eye on the roots in the pot before they go out to their permanent position, they grow quickly, if it shows signs of filling up the pot you may need to pot up before you go to final position.

male flowers can be picked, stuffed, and deepfried, especially before you get any female flowers, once you get female flowers i'd recommend you leave them on because you need the males to pollinate the females and get your lil courgettes to grow! you can tell males from females by the swelling behind the flower - if its got a swelling, its a female.

keth
xx