courgettes

nodwah

ruby911 wrote: »

Help!
I think I have 'Courgette Rot' if there is such a thing. The courgettes grow looking healthy and well they are growing off the ground, but when they get to about 10cm long the end where the flower was starts to go brown, then mushy and mouldy???
It has happened to about 15 now! I keep pulling them off but alas the next ones are always the same. S far, I have not had one normal courgette.
I thought I may be over watering them so laid of it for a bit, but it still happened.
Any advice appreciated
Many thanks

They're very prone to powdery mildew, the leaves of mine are bad with it but only one spoiled fruit so far. You can spray with a fungicide but if you don't want that (I wouldn't) just keep the plants well watered and try to keep lots of air around the plants. I feel it's much worse this year with the humid conditions. Are they inside the greenhouse?

Taye

My Courgette's are looking abit sorry for themselves... some of thier leaves are looking abit withered and look abit battered and bruised going abit brown around the edges, now im sure this is a pot/watering problem they are still in quite small pots because they are still young and it's not quite warm enough for them outside yet.

Now i can re-pot them this weekend, into something bigger though i think it will need to be another "temp" pot as i can't imagine thier final pots will fit in my Mini Green house. (but i might try they might fit on the floor if i take out a shelf i only have 2)

Anyway i've been watering them loads and they seem really thirsty i can "drown them" one day and they will have bone dry soil the following day.. hence the need for a bigger pot.

Now i think the problem is that thier pot is simply not big enough to cope with thier hydration needs, after all soaking wet soil is one thing, but if there isn't much of it, it still doens't add up to that much water for a thirsty little plant.

They are in 3" pots atm.. which physically looks big enough the plants aren't huge but something is going wrong somewhere and thats all i can put it down too. But what if the problem is over watering? i am drowning them daily, but they seem to need it, so how do i know? im guessing if the soil feels dry then i should water?

billieboy_2

Mine are in about 5" pots in a mini greenhouse. A couple of them wilted away and one has been nibbled but apart from that they seem to be thriving. I'm also growing cucumbers which I'm hoping like you to be able to keep a couple of them in the mini greenhouse taking the upper shelves out but I imagine I will have to pot them on at least once more before they eventually go into much larger pots. I will probably put the courgettes straight in the ground if there's room. HTH.

Mozart321

Do the pots have drainage holes in the bottom? If not, they may be getting too much water. If you water them and let the water drain out of the bottom, you can do the same the next day, but don't let the water sit in the pot, if there are drainage holes, make sure the water drains away.
Mozart321.

Zazen999

I'd pot them on, and put them in a saucer or tray. Then water into the saucer not into the soil and keep topping up until there is water left after about half an hour, then chuck the remaining water away. Do this every day, and as it gets warmer, a couple of times a day....

Taye

Yeah the pots have drainage and it seems to drain the exess quite well, if i give it a good water it's like a little waterfall

I've got a couple of spare seed trays i'll try potting them into the biggest pots i've got that will fit in then and try standing them in that see if it helps.

Thanks

arkonite_babe

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

harib0uk

jennybridger wrote: »

would love to know the theory of the oatmeal!

Apparently slugs love oatmeal, the theory of it is that it expands inside them... they eat so much of it they can't move, it then expands and they explode :eek:


My question, I was planning on putting my courgettes in grow bags but I'm concerned that grow bags aren't deep enough, How much depth do courgettes need? Would i be better putting them in a large container?

[Deleted User]

I planted my courgettes into the ground today as they were taking over my mini greenhouse. They are about 30 cm high. I hope they survive!

billieboy_2

I planted four in the ground on Saturday. One of them had three flowers on which never opened properly. This morning when I looked the flowers with their stalks were on the ground having been gnawed through:eek:. Do you think it could be mice? Have had something tunnelling under the sprout plants. Funny they didn't eat the courgette flowers though. Maybe a vindictive mouse as I keep filling in the tunnel! We get a lot of wood pigeons as well. Maybe I should net the courgette plants?