Help! Have I killed my courgette plant?!

summerday

Hi, this is my first year of growing a courgette plant and I thought things were going well, the plant has grown quick and has had several flowers. The flowers have now sort of dried up and shrivelled and shrunk very small, and I assumed this was normal, but when I told a lady at work she sounded very surprised and said the flowers shoukld stay large and flower-like, not dry up and shrink, as the courgettes themselves grow from the flowers. I can't see the startings of any courgettes, so she must be right.

I keep the plant on the windowsill in our spare room, it is south facing so gets lots of sun, though I do water it lots and the plant itself is green and looks healthy, its just the flowers that don't look right. Please help as I so much wanted some courgettes!

Sarah x

Gingham_Ribbon

My courgette plants haven't had any flowers at all.

thriftlady_2

The flowers have to die away before the fruits start to grow .You can't have flowers and fruit at the same time.Be patient and you should see baby courgettes begin to grow soon.

johnnytee

Courgettes are virtually indistructable as long as you can keep slugs away from them when they're young. Keep it well watered in this weather and you should have no problems.

pol

The flower has to die to start the courgette growing. If you have a look on here you can see what they are supposed to look like.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingmarrows.shtml#looking_after_the_crop


pol

Noozan

In my experience, the male flowers will die and shrivel up quickly. The fruit forms on the end of the female flower and they don't die until the courgette is about 2 inches long - I sometimes stuff the flowers and then deep fry them in tempura.

Courgette plants get very big - do you have it in a big pot on your window? By big, I mean at least a bucket size pot! They are also fairly greedy feeders and will appreciate plenty of rich organic matter.

Swan_2

Noozan wrote:

Courgette plants get very big - do you have it in a big pot on your window? By big, I mean at least a bucket size pot! They are also fairly greedy feeders and will appreciate plenty of rich organic matter.

Noozan's right, if you have a garden try the plant outside (after hardening it off) I used to grow mine in holes filled with material from my compost heap, & they produced masses of courgettes. my garden was at an altitude of 900 feet in Scotland, so unless you're in a really inhospitable place, you should get results

Penelope_Penguin

I too am concerned about growing courgette indoors. I have mine in the polytunnel. They get to be over 1m across. That's going to need to be one big windowsill!

Is the pot just too small, and no matter how much you water, the plant can simply not make enough root to sustain fruit?

Penny. x

summerday

Many thanks for all your replies. I am going to move the plant outside so it has more space, and repot it too, and hopefully I will soon see some courgettes.

aimme13

thanks for this thread, ive just got back from the car boot and bought my first courgette plant......will re-pot it tomorrow and hopefully grow some yummy courgettes

Gingham_Ribbon

Should mine have flowered by now? I've checked today and there's no sign at all of any, but the plants seem to be growing. They're in big buckets in the sun.