My Courgette flowers keep wilting - why???

[Alice]

Hi David and welcome to the Vine. I feed courgettes with general purpose fertilizer (Phostrogen) until they start making courgettes then switch to tomato feed (Tomorite with sea weed extract). I'm sure other grapes have other ideas.

[Sunbeam]

I picked 4 beautiful strawbs this morning and as a dutiful & loving mum, I gave them to my 4 year old son for breakfast - greedy monkey didn't offer to share & they were gone before I had a chance to ask! They LOOKED delish though!

[sge kelly]

I grew this type of courgette last year. The flower wilts & dies back as the courgette starts to grow. Nothing to worry about. Pick the courgettes whenever you want. If you let them grow really big then they are marrows.
They like lots of water in hot weather.

[DAF]

i had the same issues with courgettes as This is my first year for veggie growing also!!! i found that if the flowers were left on the baby courgettes rotted out and i blamed it on the ants at first!!! Though now i am pleased with my results and have attached some photeees one of my small raised veg plot when just finished and planted first couple bits in inc the Courgettes!!! had loads of radish out of it till the tomatoes plants and courgettes decided to take over the world!!

pic of some lovely fuschia berries a pinched from mums garden when i found they could be eaten or made into jams!!! some of my radish's that are left MY FIRST EVER COURGETTES!!!!

i have gotten into it so much i have planted carrots, potatoes, cilantro, mixed leaf salads, mixed radish, and now just put in some beetroot too!! all of these last edibles are in pots and trays and growning fantastically

Plan to build more raised areas sooon!!!

[DAF]

i swear i checked the spelling on that last post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
apologies but it gives me a chance to........ post more pics!!!! im too proud i should go and sit in the garden and calm down.

pics are pototaoes in various containers from black bucket type planter to huge fake terracotta plastic planter, carrots in a storage box of all things and 2 trays of various salad leaf 1 of the remaining radish all with cilantro(coriander) planted in between

i think i done good.

[leslie]

courgette

hi all
i am a total first timer, that's to say, i have never grown anything in my life before, never liked the green finger things in the past, now i am just over fifty now and i think that something happens to the brain at this age, and it feels to me that it is now compulsory to start developing these green fingers of mine,... so i started about 12 weeks ago, and I'm afraid that i am getting addicted very quickly, "scary" anyway that's me introduced.

i started to grow my first courgette, and was worried because the male flowers keep falling off, after reading this thread, i think that's normal?
but i can only see male flowers? these have been growing for about three weeks now, is this normal.

i will post my photo tomorrow for you all to see.

thank you in advance
here's my pics, i don't know if the closeup is a f/male, it's just i can't wait to find out? please help.............

[smallblueplanet]

Hi leslie, sounds like your courgettes are pretty normal. There'll be fruit soon I'm sure.

[Lemon]

Welcome leslie! Yes, sounds like you've been bitten by the bug! Courgettes today, carrots, cabbages and cauliflowers tomorrow!

Yes, the male flowers do appear before the girlees are ready. A couple of more weeks and they will be all out at the same time! You'll have lots and lots of courgettes too!

[Flummery]

It's a bit like when, in the Olden Days, the lads used to hang around the dance hall before the girls got there. Wanted the pick of the crop probably. Same with courgettes!

[SlugLobber]

LOL, Flummery! My first courgette has started swelling, but some little woodlouse (I KNOW it's them!!) has been having a nibble. There's a characteristic hole in it! If I didn't think they were kind of cute (like tiny armadillos), I'd obliterate the beggars.

How was the courgette, Sunny D? Although I just noticed the dates on this thread, so would HOPE it's digested by now???

[smallblueplanet]

...but some little woodlouse (I KNOW it's them!!) has been having a nibble. There's a characteristic hole in it! ...

Really? I never thought they did much damage and preferred rotting wood?

[Flummery]

I don't think they do much damage either - I'll bet it's a slug hole being used by a woodlouse!

Chickens love woodlice. Don't ask me how I know - they obliterate them faster than you can see!

[leslie]

Welcome leslie! Yes, sounds like you've been bitten by the bug! Courgettes today, carrots, cabbages and cauliflowers tomorrow!

Yes, the male flowers do appear before the girlees are ready. A couple of more weeks and they will be all out at the same time! You'll have lots and lots of courgettes too!

thanks for your reply, can't wait to taste my first courgette, I'm so glad the plant is fine,
i even talked to it when it was growing, and played music, in fact I'm sure i stroked it once, is this "normal" cos if it didn't produce anything, or god forbid it died, i think i would be taking a trip to the doctors.

[SlugLobber]

Oh I just caught the woodlice in there (and in strawbs, too) and assumed it was those that made the holes!

[gojiberry]

Hi Leslie and welcome to the vine. No one seems to have mentioned that there are at least 2 female flowers started on the plant in the second picture. So you shouldn't be long before you have courgettes coming out your earholes.

Ian