Courgettes
Frankiewhippet
Posts: 6
First time i've grown these - apparently there are male and female bits!!! Have taken a couple of lovely courgettes off but some of the flowers are on long spindly bits. Also some of the courgettes are forming nicely and they go yellow and die - Should i feed them with something ? Any advice please x
0
Posts
The flowers with just a stem are male and will not develop a fruit. The female flowers have a small courgette right behind the flower. The females need pollinating and if this doesn't happen, they will die and fall off. You can help by taking a male flower, stripping the outer parts away to leave the pollen-covered centre, then gently push this into the centre of an open female flower. See here:
http://completegarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/courgette-how-to-identify-male-and-female-flowers/
No need to remove flowers, just leave them do their own thing. I feed mine with a liquid veg feed weekly - take care not to splash the flowers or the fruits.
When the flowers start to fade remove them and leave the cougette maturing to the size you require
Eat and enjoy