Courgettes are doing my head in!!!

[ChrisMC]

Hi, this is my first post and as a novice I have a few questions about courgettes.

1. How can I tell the difference between male and female flowers? I have had a number of flowers and as a result now have 3 or 4 mini courgettes but the flowers have dropped off. Have they been pollinated?

2. I have lots of leaf growth, should I trim them back to encourage growth of fruit?

3. Do I dig them up at the end of the season? I have them growing in large wooden boxes alongside peas and carrots.

[di]

by no means an expert but this will be 5th yr of growing courgettes & have never been sure about male\female flowers,just let the bees do as they do & we have courgettes a plenty!not sure i'd want to do anything to make the harvest bigger they seem the 1 veg you cant give to anyone once the season hits!

[dandamegs]

Diito on the flowers.

Fruit has one on the end, I tend to pop them off once the fruit is a little bigger as they seem to rot quite quickly damaging the courgette.

I leave them totally alone, they are big sprawly type plants and have always had loads of fruit.

Dig them up at end of season, they wont survive a frost.

[Two_Sheds]

Courgettes are the easiest thing to grow. Stop fretting. Just let them do their thing.

Like most allotment crops, they are annual. They are also tender and the first frost will kill them.

[womble]

The first couple of flowers normally drop off, as two sheds says, go and look at something else for a week and you will probably have a courgette to eat
If you really want to know (and you will find this out anyway when the couregettes start to produce) the long thin ones are males and the ones with tiny immature fruits behind the flower are females.

So thin males, fat females got it?

[zazen999]

Honestly, they will drive you nuts.

Just keep them fed and watered and try not to look at them too often. I think they are shy to be honest. If you do start to thin you are getting courgettes; think again. The first ones always seem to drop off/rot so don't build up your hopes.

Just when you have given up all hope, you'll be eating them every day.

[mcsee]

Just when you have given up all hope, you'll be eating them every day.

How very true. We grew two plants last season and we gave so many away as we couldn't keep up with them.

[Mrs Dobby]

How very true. We grew two plants last season and we gave so many away as we couldn't keep up with them.

So, you think our 12 courgette plants may give us a bit more than enough to eat then?

We had 6 plants last year of 2 varieties, didnt ever reach a glut of courgettes here, so we thought we'd have a few more this year so I can add them to the tomatoes we are growing to go into the freezer, the hope is that we can get enough tomato 'base' frozen to be able to enjoy the taste of home grown all through the winter, rather than running out in januarry like we did this year!

[JO,JO]

two of my five courgettes have flowers yipee

[Two_Sheds]

courgettes here, so we thought we'd have a few more this year so I can add them to the tomatoes we are growing to go into the freezer

I didn't think you could freeze courgettes, but here you go: Storing the Surplus - How to Freeze Vegetables, Foods and Blanching Time Chart

[womble]

So, you think our 12 courgette plants may give us a bit more than enough to eat then?

12!!!

(Faints)

[di]

[QUOTE=Mrs Dobby;235095]So, you think our 12 courgette plants may give us a bit more than enough to eat then?
got a couple of nice recipes if you do~sorry WHEN you do get the glut!
choc courgette cake,pickled c's,C,teacake,C.bread,C.chutney!!....and the list goes on!!then just as the courgettes are done along come the pumpkins!!

[Cutecumber]

ChrisMC - in most situations, courgettes are easy to grow and you can leave them alone...however...

...you may find that the male and female flowers do not open at the same time, or that insects do not do enough pollinating to give you a decent crop. Stress, in terms of low temperature or inadequate water, can also produce strange flowering sequences. Do not panic at the moment as it is still quite early in the season - if you are still having problems at the end of June, then I can suggest the following...

If you see a male and female flower open at the same time (you will be able to see the difference - one has a small courgette behind it, the other has just a stalk) - help nature along. Cut the male flower off - with some stalk - and carefully remove the petals. Then, thinking of Britain, gently plunge the male part into the heart of the female flower - sorry, but that's exactly what you have to do! Basically, you are taking the part of the bee in transferring the pollen between the male and female parts of the plant. It's not difficult and it might help improve your crop.

The second possibility - for the future - is to buy seed of a parthenocopic variety (e.g. Parthenon). This is a self-fertile courgette which does not need the male flowers to produce fruit. If you have ongoing trouble with fruit setting, these are really worth a try.

[Mrs Dobby]

I didn't think you could freeze courgettes, but here you go: Storing the Surplus - How to Freeze Vegetables, Foods and Blanching Time Chart

Thanks for the link Twosheds, tho I wasnt planning on freezing them alone, but in fact making a type of ragout sauce with toms, courgettes and peppers, then cooking it and freezing it, so it can be used as a base for any recipies that use tomatoes (goulash, bolognese, chilli, curry etc)

12!!!

(Faints)

Lol! Dare I tell you that we've left space for another 2 to be successionally planted behind the first batch?

[QUOTE=andi&di;235234]

So, you think our 12 courgette plants may give us a bit more than enough to eat then?QUOTE]

got a couple of nice recipes if you do~sorry WHEN you do get the glut!
choc courgette cake,pickled c's,C,teacake,C.bread,C.chutney!!....and the list goes on!!then just as the courgettes are done along come the pumpkins!!

Lol! We're growing some pumpkins and squashes too, wanna guess how many??

5 or 6 plants each of 6 or 7 varieties, approx 30 plants in total at the moment! I love roasted pumpkin, and Mr D has the most absolutely delish pumpkin pie recipe, plus of course we want plenty for carving on Halloween! We had somewhere in the region of 25 pumpkins and squashes last year, and ran out before they went off, so hopefully a few more this year!

[di]

it's the squashes fault we had to get the 2nd plot!!..pumpkin curries good,! I had a bit of an accident on Ebay while Andi was at work one day & now we have a few new varieties to try!(my excuse is that their leaves will save us some pennies on weed control fabric!