courgette flowers

[Dogowner]

Can anyone tell me why I have all female flowers on my courgette plants?

[ameno]

What variety are you growing?
I had this problem both last year and the year before. I was growing Tuscany. I had three plants, and all produced barely any male flowers at all, and as a result I had very few courgettes, because most of the female flowers didn't get pollinated.

[Dogowner]

I don't know it doesn't say on the packet. Just says F1 hybrid

[annie8]

Strange. All mine are male so far, thought I’d read that you often get more male flowers early in the season.

[Jungle Jane]

It could be a variety that doesn’t need pollination,parthenocarpy lets the fruit develop without fertilisation?

[ameno]

It could be a variety that doesn’t need pollination,parthenocarpy lets the fruit develop without fertilisation?

The current parthenocarpic varieties still produce male flowers (unlike with parthenocarpic cucumbers).
Of course, if it is a parthenocarpic variety then the fact that it is not producing male flowers is not necessarily a problem, but it still doesn't answer the question as why it's doing so in the first place...

[Bren In Pots]

Thats odd my courgettes always have produced male flowers first with the female ones being much later.

[Dogowner]

I thought it was odd as well Bren in Pots, that is why I asked. In past years I have had the male flowers appearing first

[Plot70]

I have got female flowers first on a fancy pumpkin plant. The male flowers are still in small tightly closed buds near the root end of the vine.

[rary]

I don't have any flowers yet the plants must be about three weeks in advance of a usual year so not really worried about that and when they start throwing flowers it will more than likely be male flowers first

[Mr Bones]

Read somewhere that courgettes only produce Male flowers until temps stay above 10

[Mr Bones]

Ha ha, only half a post again.... come on IT get your act together..

Was supposed to say 10 degrees then they'll produce female flowers too but maybe some varieties are different.

[ameno]

Ha ha, only half a post again.... come on IT get your act together..

Was supposed to say 10 degrees then they'll produce female flowers too but maybe some varieties are different.

That's true, but the topic creator has the opposite problem: only female flowers.

[Dogowner]

I did wonder if they were a self pollinating variety but the courgette is remaining small. It hasn't grown any bigger for over a week. They sound very similar to Plot 70's pumpkin, the male flowers are all in tight bud at base of plants. I planted 6 seeds and all are the same, all in flower and all female.

[ameno]

I don't know what to suggest, to be honest. I never did find a solution when I had that problem. They would throw out the odd male flower, and I tried to pollinate as many female flowers as I could whenever one appeared, but the female flowers still outnumbered the males by some 10 to 1 all summer.

One I can suggest would be to pick the courgettes just as the flower begins to die and eat them as baby courgettes (they'll only be about 3 inches or so long, but it's better than nothing, and picking small encourages more female flowers to grow more quickly).
Another option is to buy and sow more courgette seeds. I suspect this problem is varietal, so buy a different variety. You still have plenty to time to sow more courgette seeds for a crop this summer. You don't necessarily need to get rid of the current plants, either, as long as you have space, as you can use the new plants as pollen donors for the current plants.