Courgette male flowers - remove/keep?

[drf]

Hello all,

Well my first ever vegetable growing seems to be going OK. Lots of toms swelling nicely, first tiny dwarf french beans, and now flowers on my courgettes! As to the latter...

One of my plants has what looks like a male flower (no swelling behind it). Should I leave it on for pollination purposes? Strangely the plant that had the first female flower has now lost the flower and it looks like a courgette is developing behind it. I think this happened before the male one opened - is this possible? I.e. do they need pollinating? If so, I assume some busily industrious pollinator had managed to hunt mine out after a visit to someone else's garden! Clever little things. Isn't nature wonderful!

[Birdie Wife]

Hi drf, leave the male flowers on, they usually appear before the female flowers and you'll need them for pollination. Do you have any male flowers on your other courgettes that could have been visited to pollinate the female? Or was the very first flower of all the plants the female one? If the latter, I'd say that's really lucky! 'Course someone might come along now and say unfertilised female flowers swell a bit before just dropping off, sorry I'm not that experienced to be able to give you the answer but I'm sure someone will!

Yes, nature is really brilliant!

[Cutecumber]

Yes, you need the male flowers which contain the pollen...

...UNLESS you are growing a parthenocopic variety which is self-fertile. An example of this is Parthenon which, incidentally, I grow more successfully than open-pollinated courgettes.

Often, normal courgette plants start off producing male flowers and only male flowers... then, after a while, the female ones come along. Some of the tiny fruit behind the female flowers will get pollinated and others won't - sometimes the little courgette gets no bigger than a finger and gradually rots off, meaning is has not set properly. If you are concerned, and have only a couple of plants, you can hand pollinate by taking a male flower and, well, introducing it (!!) to a female one.

[Birdie Wife]

snap

it's usually me that's not quick enough!

[pottymarigold]

Are you able to still eat the tiny starting of courgettes on the female flower? A female flower dropped off mine leaving a larger 'courgette' than the ones that haven't fallen off. I too have the problem of no male flowers on either of my plants but am desperately hoping (like drf) that a bee has discovered some male flower from another garden...miracles do happen don't they?!!

[Urban]

chance would be a fine thing, looks like the slugs have taken a liking to my courgette flowers, touch wood I am getting on top of the problem