Courgettes rotting on plant

[Opal]

Why are most of my courgettes rotting on the plant? Someone told me not to water the plant from above, so now I am watering it just at the base and take care not to wet the stems or fruit, but they are still rotting once they are about 1-2 inches long. They are growing in a poly-tunnel, so are not exposed to too much rain.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[salilah]

If the female flowers do not get pollinated from male flowers, the fruit will not set - how many insects (bees) are getting into your polytunnel? If not, you may need to pollinate by hand?
S

[Alison]

Sometimes the early and / or late courgettes get a bit of blossom rot if the flower doesn't fall off properly. Doesn't seem to be a problem when they get going properly though.

[rustylady]

Sounds like they're not being pollinated - it doesn't seem to be a watering problem

[Bramble_killer]

Mine are now starting to rot at the end and they are outside where other plants have been pollinated. I think it was the flowers getting too wet from the rain we had last week so fingers crossed the next batch will be ok

[solway cropper]

Remove the flowers as soon as the fruits form, I think that's where the rot starts. I water from above and have no problems but they do require copious amounts of water and if they don't get it they start to misbehave.

[join_the_resistance]

I agree with solway, you should remove the flowers. I usually wait until the flowers start to shrivel before i knock them off. I now do daily inspections, i lost too many courgettes this year because of this.