courgette help

[devon-surfer]

Ive a couple of courgette plants growing, they are starting to flower. One of the the flowers looks like it has a baby courgette growing behind, this is before the flower opened.. The flower has now opened, does it still need pollinating, or does it mean I have courgettes.

[Paulottie]

If You mean 'do I need to hand pollinate?'....No, the bees will do just fine without you. You'll soon have courgettes.

[chickenjane]

I agree wih paul. Courgettes usually have enough flowers hat the insects will take the pollen from the male flower to the female for you.

But for info
The female flower has the lump underneath & is usually on a shorter stem.
the male flower has no lump& a longer stem.
The aim is to get some of the pollen from the central boss in the male flower on to the bits stickin gup inv the centr of the femele flower.
Unfertilised fruit will just sit there then fall off. Fertilised fruit ,esp in this weather,will swell infront of your eyes

[Alice]

You can see how the female flowers look here. Sounds like you have your first courgette. Congratulations.

[rustylady]

Just don't turn your back on them, they turn into marrows at the speed of lightning, especially with all the rain we're having. Checked mine at the weekend and they must be nice the bl***y snails have eaten them!

[NattieG]

I'm gutted as I had two corgettes appearing, but the oppoite sex flowers are way behind in opening, so the corgettes have died off as their flower did not get pollinated Will the other flowers catch up and open soon, or am I likely to loose loads more of my crop?

[SueA]

Hi NattieG & Devonsurfer, don't worry about your courgettes I'm sure they'll be fine. You often lose the first one or two because they don't get pollinated properly but they should then be fine.If the weather has been very wet near you there may not have been enough insects flying around to pollinate but I'm sure they'll settle down, also you may think the flower hasn't opened but you may just have missed it as they can open & close in a day.

[NattieG]

thanks for the reassurance Sue xx