Two courgette plants - one courgette

Seakay

Courgette flowers are edible, so pick the male ones, remove the stamens and chop them raw into salads for a bit of colour, stuff then with cream cheese and herbs and fry them (or not), dip into thin batter and fry (stuffed or not).
At least you'll be harvesting until the courgettes start!

honeydukes

Hi all, this is my 1st forum reply so be kind to me!

This is my 2nd year with a mini allotment (3 poles sq whatever that means...) and after last years over production (I had to keep giving away club-like marrows to glassy smiling friends) I have 1 regular cougette and 2 custard whites. Quite excited about the custard whites as I have never had them before but was tempted by the seed catalogue.

Unfortunately the regular one has a marrow and about 5 wee courgettes but nada from the exciting custardy ones.

Do you think jam roly poly will go with the custard whites :rotfl:

On the eating the flower thing... are they not fragile? Is there a trick to stuffing them?

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

My advice for courgette growing is: cut off anything (leaves, buds, stalks, mini courgettes) that are going yellow or brown. This stops the plant wasting energy on stuff that's dying/on its way out. ALso, the male buds (the ones that DON'T look like they have tiny courgettes under them) if they go yellow or brown or don't seem to be thriving, cut them off ASAP.

iainsmum

I have four plants and a DH that doesn't like courgettes...I'm getting worried now that I succumb to CO (courgette overload)!

But to the OP, hang in there, I had loads of flowers and no fruit, and now I've got at least three growing on each plant, plus loads more female buds on the way, so they're definitely coming........yay!

I have a question though....should I leave them to get as big as the ones in the supermarket, or should I harvest earlier? My biggest are about 4"-5" long and perhaps 3/4"-1" round...any ideas when I should take them?

Primrose

iansmum - my advice is to pick your courgettes when they are no longer than 4-5" long. After that they become an abomination in my view because the flesh goes more pappy and if you boil them they become more indigestible. The supermarkets and growers often sell them bigger because obviously they're sold by weight and the bigger they are, the more money they get. When picked small, they can also be eaten raw in salads and sandwiches as a substitute for cucumber as they have more of a crunch and don't make the bread so soggy.