Courgette guidance needed!

[joedoyle]

Hi all,

This is my first year of growing courgettes, and we've got three plants in containers, up on a roof in London. I have a few questions:
1) The flowers have appeared - can I rely on bees (there don't seem to be many bee visitors to the roof) to polinate of should I polinate them myself? If so, how?
2) Two plants appear to have the early signs of powdery mildew. Does this need treating? And again, if so, how? I have read all sorts of advice from leaving well alone, through spraying washing liquid, to trimming off affected leaves. I am watering once every two days - is this enough as I have also read that it is related to dry conditions.
3) Eating the flowers. Can I eat both the female and male flowers? When to pick? Should I leave the first few to allow pollination to get underway?

Any help is much appreciated!!!!
Thanks,
Joe

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Joe, firstly with the flowers you can eat them both but why eat a female flower when it is a potential courgette and to begin with the plants will only produce male flowers. You can pollinate the flowers yourself but to start with I think I would give the bees, wasps and insects a chance to do the pollination. If you want to you must pollinate the female flower first thing in the morning as soon as the flower opens. Cut a male flower off the plant with the stem attached, then carefully remove the petals from the male flower. Then holding the stem wipe the top of the stamen where the pollen is over the stigma in the female flower.

If it is powdery mildew it will only go worse and an organic solution is to spray the plants with skimmed milk diluted with water - one part milk to 9 parts water. This works because the milk contains salts and amino acids which aswell as being beneficial to the plants help fight the disease. Spray every two - three days.

On a roof in London, the plants might want watering every day as London is hot anyway and any wind will dry the pots out. Courgettes like water but please don't drown them!!

[Ace]

Hi Joe

Are you sure it's powdery mildew?

Courgette leaves of various varieties have grey mottling completely naturally. I panicked when I first saw mine but they actually look lovely once they get going. Rub your fingers on the stuff to see if it is indeed powdery.

[backyard lil]

Originally Posted by Lesley Jay

Hi Joe, firstly with the flowers you can eat them both but why eat a female flower when it is a potential courgette and to begin with the plants will only produce male flowers. You can pollinate the flowers yourself but to start with I think I would give the bees, wasps and insects a chance to do the pollination. If you want to you must pollinate the female flower first thing in the morning as soon as the flower opens. Cut a male flower off the plant with the stem attached, then carefully remove the petals from the male flower. Then holding the stem wipe the top of the stamen where the pollen is over the stigma in the female flower.

If it is powdery mildew it will only go worse and an organic solution is to spray the plants with skimmed milk diluted with water - one part milk to 9 parts water. This works because the milk contains salts and amino acids which aswell as being beneficial to the plants help fight the disease. Spray every two - three days.

On a roof in London, the plants might want watering every day as London is hot anyway and any wind will dry the pots out. Courgettes like water but please don't drown them!!

I am growing courgettes for first time also, have eaten a couple already 'delicious' but i too have the male flowers and wondered what they where .....will try to pollinate ask suggested or leave it to the 'buzzy bees' here is hoping for a bigger crop....x

[Sueh]

How do you know which ones are the "Male" flowers and are you supposed to leave them. The same with Cues how do I know which are "Male" and what to do.

Thanks again
Sue

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Sue, the male flowers are on a thin stalk but the female flowers have a little 'tiny bump' behind the flower which is the baby courgette. It is exactly the same for cucumbers but some cucumber varieties are all female and if a male flower is produced it needs removing. Other cucumber varieties produce both sexes and must have all their male flowers removing or else the fruit will be bitter and then you have the outdoor ridge cucumbers that must have all the female and male flowers left on the plant for pollination. So, what variety of cucumber are you growing??

[Sueh]

Thanks again I understand now. I am growing some all female type which are not doing great, some yellow cues not sure of the name, an Italian smaller variety and Italian Cetriolo which I only started a few weeks back but are doing well. I grew the cetriolo last year but although fine never really gre very long. However I did not take off the male flowers and I will make sure I do this time.

Leslie I really appreciate your time spent replying it is invaluable to us novices.
thank you so much.
Sue

[joedoyle]

thanks for the feedback - been really useful so far! I have a couple more queries:

one of the courgette plants (mainly around the closed flowers) is covered in small black insects. I followed some advice to spray with water mixed with crushed garlic to make an organic insecticide - is this sound advice?!

one of the most developed courgettes (about the size of a small plum, it is a round variety that I believe should grow to the size of a small tennis ball) had it's flower fall off and then itself fell off the plant, looking as though it had already started to rot - how can I prevent this so that they grow to full size?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!!

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Joe, the reason why the courgette started to rot then fell off the plant was that it was not pollinated. This does happen sometimes. It's always best to remove the dead flower from the end of the courgettes because the flowers can stick to the fruit and this can also cause the courgettes to rot.

Check underneath the leaves of the courgette plant for eggs and if you find any they need squashing (thumb and finger!) and removing from the plant. I would also squash the black aphids. A spray that Hollie has found works great is just a tiny drop of washing up liquid diluted in plenty of water. The garlic spray also needs a drop of washing up liquid adding to it but I have found advice to test the garlic spray on just one leaf first and wait two days to see if the leaf turns yellow. It's important not to use anti-bacterial washing up liquid as it can kill the plant.

[Lesley Jay]

Originally Posted by Sueh

Thanks again I understand now. I am growing some all female type which are not doing great, some yellow cues not sure of the name, an Italian smaller variety and Italian Cetriolo which I only started a few weeks back but are doing well. I grew the cetriolo last year but although fine never really gre very long. However I did not take off the male flowers and I will make sure I do this time.

Leslie I really appreciate your time spent replying it is invaluable to us novices.
thank you so much.
Sue

Hi Sue, I have looked for Cetriolo cucumbers and there are a few varieties - some grow small, some medium and some large. So, maybe you were growing the medium sized cucumber last year. The reason for removing the male flowers from some varieties is that if the female flower is pollinated by the male flower then you will grow bitter tasting cucumbers. It wouldn't affect the size that the cucumbers grew to and as your cucumbers tasted good last year then I would grow them the same this year without removing the male flowers.