Wilting courgettes

[snowbunny]

Hi all, I've searched for this and I think it's OK, but wanted your experienced view on it.

I have eight courgette plants of various varieties in my plot. They all look pretty healthy; I check them daily for aphids and water them morning and night. The thing with them is, they wilt horribly during the day. I should explain that I'm in Spain - not hugely far south (Tarragona province) but it's been really hot this last week. We're in a heatwave, with temps exceeding 40C, and with a bit of a breeze, which, rather than being refreshing, is like a hairdryer being blown on you.

Once the sun goes down, they perk up again, even before I give them their nighttime water. I've read that this is OK and perfectly normal; that I should only be concerned if they stay floppy. Is that true? Should I try to shade them anyhow? I have some enviromesh which I could lay over, but this would prevent pollination. On the other hand, I suffered last year from lots of aborted fruits, which I've since read could be to do with poor pollination. With the flowers closing during the day, due to the wilt, this could be a reason. If they were kept under the mesh, I could maybe hand pollinate?

Any thoughts?

[Penellype]

Courgettes and cucumbers do wilt if they get hot. While it probably won't do much harm, I like to avoid it if possible. Hot and windy is the worst combination as it leads to huge evaporation from the large leaves. Can you put up a shade barrier on the sunny side of the plants? That way the insects will still have a way in.

You can hand pollinate courgettes, it isn't difficult, just a bit of a pain. For future years you could grow one of the parthenocarpic varieties which don't need pollinating.

[snowbunny]

I am in the (long) process of planning my ideal veg garden. I only moved here last April, so I'm having to go through a bit of a learning curve to find out what problems I'm facing. I hope that next year I'll be able to spend more time doing full-on renovations to my plot, which can include structures for holding shades etc. Maybe some sort of "car port" structure with mesh over the roof would be worthwhile looking at for the future.

[Snoop Puss]

Mine are doing the same, snowbunny. It sounds like you're looking after the plants extremely well. But if you do decide to put up some shade, make sure you don't cut too much of the light.