Courgettes Rotting On The Plant

[HKCambridge]

Some of my courgettes are starting to go mouldy on the plant before they get beyond two or three inches. Any idea what it is and what I can do about it, and should I cut off the mouldy ones as soon as I notice?

The courgettes are outside in pots so they've been getting rained on a lot, but their drainage should be fine. The also have some yellowing and greying leaves and have done for a while. I was ignoring the unhealthy look of the leaves because the plants were growing (tasty!) courgettes, but now some of the courgettes are turning bad too.

[WiZeR]

you need to take the flower off as soon as the courgette starts to form, this is where the rot starts to get in.

[Flummery]

They can get wet at the flower end if the flower doesn't drop. As WiZer says, make sure it's removed. However, I said this to my sister to whom I donated a plant recently and a couple of hers have started swelling from the bottom end but stayed thin at the 'nose' giving them a very strange shape. I'm wondering if, in a fit of beginner enthusiasm, she's removed the flower before it's fully pollentated. Anyone had this before?

[HKCambridge]

They can get wet at the flower end if the flower doesn't drop. As WiZer says, make sure it's removed. However, I said this to my sister to whom I donated a plant recently and a couple of hers have started swelling from the bottom end but stayed thin at the 'nose' giving them a very strange shape. I'm wondering if, in a fit of beginner enthusiasm, she's removed the flower before it's fully pollentated. Anyone had this before?

I've been getting that shape of courgette too, but I haven't been removing the flowers (which I'll start doing now, thanks).

[leona]

it usually because they havent been pollinated. if the flower opens and dosent get pollinated the fruit dosent really develop then goes yellow and wrinkles before dropping off. similar with strawbs when they dont get pollinated.

[Grovsey]

I had that last year, very frustrating! I had 2 plants and one was great and the other had these fruits that were a "fat at one end and thin at the other end shape" and then withered and died. However in between these weird shaped fruits I also had normal ones on the same plant.

I ended up just picking the weird ones ASAP and eating them before they withered...tasted the same!

This year I grew for seed and planted out about 5 weeks ago and they are really struggling to grow....1 very small fruit developing but hardly any leaf growth as yet.

[SueA]

Hi H.K., I'd give your plants a good feed & cut off the worst affected leaves & courgettes. You can still use the courgettes with a mouldy end, just cut the mouldy bit off, they taste just the same! Courgettes are prone to mould & powdery mildew but can usually cope & produce a good crop anyway. Sometimes they start to grow better if you take off the first tiny courgettes & allow the later ones to develop.

[witch-1]

Mine are much the same... I had the tiniest two courgettes fried yesterday (just so I don't feel totally upset at getting nothing). I also have a siamese twin courgette growing... I do hope it fully develops.

Seem to be plenty of growth, but once they get to 1.5 - 2 inches they start to rot!

Someone else on here said it could be just the first few... and the rest of the crop should be ok - here's hoping!

Jan
x

[Corn on the Rob]

I've got the same problem. The fruit starts to develop normally but then the ends start to go soft and start to rot. I was wondering whether is was related to the amount of rain we've had recently. The flowers have been starting to rot so I've removed but not sure what stage to do this? Any ideas? It's a little bit disappointing to see the first veggies from my patch turning to mush before I can eat them.