Courgette problem

savingpennies

I was given some courgette plants by a friend. One I planted in my veg patch the other I have in the greenhouse. Both have grown well and I have flowers and a couple of fruits have grown but they are not greening very well. Today I looked at the one growing outside adn found a courgette but it was soft and almost rotten. We have had a lot of rain lately - is this to blame or is there something I'm not doing right?

studentphil

savingpennies wrote: »

I was given some courgette plants by a friend. One I planted in my veg patch the other I have in the greenhouse. Both have grown well and I have flowers and a couple of fruits have grown but they are not greening very well. Today I looked at the one growing outside adn found a courgette but it was soft and almost rotten. We have had a lot of rain lately - is this to blame or is there something I'm not doing right?

It must be the rain because mine have gone rotton lately and in past years they have never done that.

Zazen999

Hi

When you say they are not greening very well - what do you mean as courgettes don't change colour.

The first fruits usually do go soft or rotten - you need to take the first couple off when they are literally only an inch or two long. And then the rest will start coming. Think of them as trial fruits.

~Chameleon~

Zazen999 wrote: »

Hi

When you say they are not greening very well - what do you mean as courgettes don't change colour.

Maybe she has a yellow variety?

The first fruits usually do go soft or rotten - you need to take the first couple off when they are literally only an inch or two long. And then the rest will start coming. Think of them as trial fruits.

I didn't realise that, thanks! I have a few small courgettes just appearing so will go and remove those as they are very close to the ground and at risk of rotting in this vile wet weather.

Zazen999

Aye, if they are yellow then they stay yellow - I grow the yellow ones as well as the green ones and I've just had some for lunch. Lovely.

Also, yellow ones are notorious for going soft quickly.

savingpennies

They are I think a green variety. I've just checked and they are green near the stem but yellow at the end. I've lso found one on the indoor plant that has gone rotten.

twiglet98

I planted two (green) courgette plants in mid-May, in a 'medium' size vegetable planting bag - the bags came in a set of 3 and recommended the med planter could take 3 courgettes. They are big plants now and I've had about 6 edible courgettes from them, they are flowering well and I take the flower heads off as soon as they wilt, but the baby courgettes seem to be either rotting from the flower end, or going odd shapes, bulbous at one end. Could over-watering be causing this, or overcrowding?

Cakie

This is my second year of growing Courgettes. I have 3 green and 1 yellow. I find that the first couple of courgettes tend to go rotten, possibly cos they are so close to the ground. Chop them off as soon as they start going soggy to encourage the plant to concentrate on producing new ones.
Also, take the flowers off as they start to wilt but DON'T take flowers off because there are too many shoots, I did this last year thinking I was helping but these were the male flowers and are needed (Oops)

~Chameleon~

twiglet98 wrote: »

I planted two (green) courgette plants in mid-May, in a 'medium' size vegetable planting bag - the bags came in a set of 3 and recommended the med planter could take 3 courgettes. They are big plants now and I've had about 6 edible courgettes from them, they are flowering well and I take the flower heads off as soon as they wilt, but the baby courgettes seem to be either rotting from the flower end, or going odd shapes, bulbous at one end. Could over-watering be causing this, or overcrowding?

This sounds like it could be a problem stemming from irregular watering, which is more than likely the way the weather has been the last few weeks!

I don't know how big the bags are that you're using, but as a rough guide I give each plant roughly a square metre of ground each as they do need a lot of room to spread out.

robnye

on a slightly diferent note - ie cucumbers (same plant family)
do you have to remove the small squigdy ones..... the same as you do for courgettes?

rojomymojo

Sounds to me like they have not been pollinated properly...