Courgettes - flowers but not fruit?

lawrie28

SO, I have lots of healthy courgette plants, massive leaves, spread over half the garden. They are still producing lots of flowers, but not a single courgette to be seen. The flowers drop off after flowering, leaving a bit of green stem.

Am I doing something wrong?
Are they doing something wrong?

can anyone help?

weiser

it seems to be a bit of a mystery this year ive had the same no courgettes at all but as you will see from other posters here they have too many

jennyo

Makes you wonder if some seeds were somehow modified so as to not produce fruit, mine have been fine, cutting courgettes everyday from my 2 plants.
Was it new seed you used or old ?
Don't know anything about growing them, I have been lucky they are one of the few things that have never failed me.

Mrs_Arcanum

Did there not used to be male & female flowers with the need to ensure pollination between the two?

As a strange side note a courgette plant managed to grow in the kerb (again a fruitless flower).

1986fox

My courgettes have male and female parts sometimes it is necessary to pollinate them by hand especially in wet weather if not many bugs around.

http://completegarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/how-to-hand-pollinate-courgette-flowers/

The long thin stems are male and the shorter fatter ones are the female ones where the fruit grows

ladylouise62

I've had a poor harvest this year even with hand pollination, although have at least had some.

poly1

Well I seem to have managed to get courgettes with all male flowers!! So it doesn't look like I will get any courgettes at all, I can't hand pollinate what isn't there! Its very strange as I have never had that happen before.

londonsurrey

All is not lost. There is a multitude of recipes for male zucchini/courgette flowers, involving vegetarian recipes, lamb, spices, etc:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=zucchini+courgette#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=zucchini+flower+recipe&pbx=1&oq=zucchini+flower+recipe&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=5265l11720l0l11816l19l12l1l7l7l1l712l3182l0.2.2.1.0.1.2l8l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=4bd1951a223e467a&biw=1024&bih=673

lawrie28

I think I am getting 2 courgettes!

Will try the hand pollination. Conversation with SWMBO will be fun. "what are you doing with the plants?" "Artificially inseminating the courgettes......." Hmmm, may have to word it differently!

mary-op

We've had very few courgettes this year and the ones we've had have been small by comparison to other years. At the moment two plants look as if they've got courgettes growing on them but they've been the same size for about 5 days.......not grown an inch !
Had problems with runner beans as well.........looked as if they were doing well then all of a sudden they grow and shrivel at the same time ! Can't work it out at all
Oh well..........maybe next year..............:)

Well_Preserved

I wonder if shortage of rain has been an issue for some - I know it's affected my plants [southern part of Lincolnshire]