Courgettes :(

[insy]

Well they was doing sooo well, nice and green and very big leaves, but now i have a problem.

I've had to chuck about 20 odd of them and i have only had 6 good ones, the courgettes keep turning yellow colour and going manky?

Any ideas what this could be? the plants themselves look healthy lots of flowers ncie deep green but the courgettes are just well ....

Thanks

[Thelma Sanders]

Lack of pollination, maybe - have you had male and female flowers at the same time?

[insy]

Could well be as its very very condensed and not seen any bees working them as to busy on brambles which obviously a better nectar source.

I've started doing it by hand now as i thought this could be the case, oh well ill learn i suppose :P.

First time i grown these this year.

[rustylady]

very very condensed

Sorry, no idea what you mean by that.

What variety are you growing and are they in open ground?

[insy]

Variety is F1 Green Bush Courgette

Well since I've never grown them before i didn't realize how big they got as a plant, so i planted them a little closer than the recommended spacing :P. So due to the size they've grown and spacing its very condensed due to huge courgette plant leaves.

I've starting hand pollinating them and when flower start to go manky on courgette i knock them off to discourage any rot.

I've been giving them a feed every 10+days as well now

[rustylady]

See what you mean now. Exactly how close together did you plant them?

[insy]

It recommended 60cm i think mine are around 45-50 cm, I'll learn from my mistakes .

What I've done is cut off all non self pollinated ones and manky ones and left all the new fresh ones with fresh flower which I've now been hand pollinating last couple days and will carry on doing so, only thing i don't like about the courgettes is them little fine spikes on stems they irritate my skin lol.

[insy]

Okay quick update.

Courgettes looking 200x better now still a couple manky ones but i thin there the ones to late to hand pollinate, problem is now i have lots of flowers on courgettes because they keep shooting up everywhere and hardly any males.

Ideas?

[alldigging]

Courgette, marrow, pumpkin and squash problems / Royal Horticultural Society

That any use?

[insy]

So basically nothing more i can do until more male flowers start producing .

[vikkib]

We always end up with way more courgettes than we need so I don't tend to feed mine.

If you've got plenty too maybe you could lay off the feed and use it on something else that isn't doing so well?

A friend of mine has grown a self fertile variety of courgette this year and she had courgettes much earlier than anyone else, I'm thinking of having a plant of this variety next year too.

[insy]

Everything is being fed, nothing missing out on that liquid gold .

Now you mention it i have 2 water butts full of water waiting for some thistles or comfrey or what ever i can get my hands on to start the fertilizer brew.

Btw Vicki how you decided to do your distant learning with in the end? How you finding it?