Chicken bald back

[soapdragon]

Have grown courgettes for the 1st time this year and thought I would be overwhelmed by them but.......virtually all of the flowers are on thin hollow stems and I have only had three 'veggies' from 5 large plants. I am assuming that these flowers on hollow stems havn't been polinated but don't really know Should I be telling the local bees off and getting out there with a paintbrush to do the job myself

 

They are getting plenty of sun and water so I am at a loss! Could an Omleteer gardener please stop laughing long enough to put me right,please

[surfer_chicken]

I'm no expert, just know this from observing my parents over the years, but courgettes have female and male flowers, so it is possible the flowers on hollow stems are the male flowers? Not sure Hopefully someone who knows what they're on about will come along

[Eggasperated]

I think you are talking about the male flowers which normally come first, my courgettes are only just getting going now but I expect to be inundated soon - I am in scotland so my courgettes were quite late going in.

Some info on flowers here that might help.

[Nikipins]

I agree with the previous answers, it sounds like the flowers are male flowers and the female fruit bearing flowers are just starting. It was such a prolonged cold spring that my courgettes have just in the last couple of weeks started bearing fruit so I expect yours will pick up soon. I did notice this evening that I have started to get some distal fruit rot which was a terrible problem last year with all the rain lets hope the weather cheers up again or the courgettes will suffer, I missed the annual glut last year with the perennial question "how would you like your courgettes tonight!"

[Purplemaniacs]

I haven't grown cougettes this year as I had a very disappointing crop last year.

 

I think it was distal fruit rot as Nikipins said, not that I knew that last year, I heard something about it on the radio last week.

 

I think I will give them a go next year.

 

Hope you get some courgettes soon SD.

 

Chrissie

[stu]

I am growing yellow courgettes because someone gave me the seeds... they are growing alongside some usual green ones, and the late spring jas shot them completely. They are fruiting now, but the yellow ones are way way behind the green ones.

They take up so uch space that I wouldn't normally consider them, and neither of us even like courgettes so they go to the pub anyway.

 

The flowers on the stem 'are' male, but don't stop the insects getting to them. The female (fruiting) flower has a visible courgette 'baby' behind it, and they will come later... mostly... a bit like cucumbers.

 

You can actually harvest and eat the flowers too. Leave a couple of male ones though.

Good Luck

[soapdragon]

Blimey, Stu....you take yours to the pub? You are spoiling them; perhaps thats where I am going wrong! Mind you, I bet they are a cheap round!

 

Seriously, thanks for all the replies; I sort of thought that might be the case but had already harvested three 'female' ones before the 'males' decided to crowd them out! I will keep watering them and hope for the best!

[sjp]

male flower production on any of the squash family is affected by the weather to some degree cold spells result in more male flowers warm weather in more female flowers my courgettes flowered when we had the hot spell middle of last month and I ended up with half a dozen large courgettes both green and yellow which the chucks were well pleased with, the 2 pumpkins that I've got only started to flower last week and had about a dozen male flowers between them but they are about 3 weeks behind were they should be

[clucker1]

I was wondering about the male flowers too and asked our head gardener at work what to do with them....and he said leave them on.

[soapdragon]

At the moment its going to be a close run thing as to whether the female flowers get to fruit(so to speak) before the slugs and snails munch them.........the pots are stood on largish gravel too which I thought would deter the little doodahs. The growbag is too and raised on bricks. The slithery things in our garden obviously have Kendal mint cake and crampons.

[chickencam]

The fact that they are in pots will make a difference, they are very thirsty and hungry plants and they grow much better in open ground with an uniterupted water supply. Mine suffered in the heat and have only been reliably producing fruit since the weather cooled a bit.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm glad I spotted this thread . I've been getting lots of courgettes this year but suddenly noticed all these hollow stems with flowers on them. Now I know why .

[Daphne]

Just to support the pot/heat points. I am in Portugal in scorching heat with a south facing garden. In England I normally grow 5 courgette plants and have to freeze most of the resulting glut - my beds are moist with very rich soil although I do water in the summer. Last year I lost all the plants to slugs - I didn't realise till then that slugs ate courgette plants, I thought they were bombproof! I also thought that courgettes would grow well in a hot country. Wrong This year I have planted 5 plants (a mix of UK and local varieties) and so far I've had just 5 courgettes Its too hot and not enough fertility in the soil - its so dry and very open texture. I water twice a day, but even so the climate is just too hot, the soil is not good, and my beds have no shade. My neighbour has a north facing garden and plenty of courgettes, and I see lots growing down in river valleys where it is slightly cooler and moister. If you have the space, I'd pop a few in the ground next year, having first given it all the manure/compost you can find, or sprinkle something like pelleted chicken manure. The variety I usually swear by is called Defender - masses of tasty fruit