I am having limited success growing fertilised courgettes.
Some get fertilised, but most not.

At the moment I have some male flowers and some female flowers but all the
flowers appear to be closed.
If they are closed all day, how do the insects fertilise them?

Baffled as usual


Dave R

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AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On 14/08/2020 16:53, David wrote:
I am having limited success growing fertilised courgettes.
Some get fertilised, but most not.

At the moment I have some male flowers and some female flowers but all the
flowers appear to be closed.
If they are closed all day, how do the insects fertilise them?

Baffled as usual


Dave R


When I was young we used to pick the male flower, remoe the pewtals and
insert it into the middle of the female flower.

On Fri, 14 Aug 2020 17:35:14 +0100, David Hill wrote:

On 14/08/2020 16:53, David wrote:
I am having limited success growing fertilised courgettes.
Some get fertilised, but most not.

At the moment I have some male flowers and some female flowers but all
the flowers appear to be closed.
If they are closed all day, how do the insects fertilise them?

Baffled as usual


Dave R


When I was young we used to pick the male flower, remove the petals and
insert it into the middle of the female flower.

Well, yes, that is what I am trying to do.

However I would prefer the female flower to be open when I do it.
Even better if the male flower is open as well.
Up to now I've had to destroy the petals to get inside.

It would be reassuring to see both male and female flowers open at the
same time to give insects a fighting chance to pollinate naturally.

Anyway, sticky and overcast this morning and some of the female flowers
(but no males) are open, so it may be a morning thing or a weather thing.
I've normally looked after noon.

Cheers



Dave R


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AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On 16/08/2020 10:59, David wrote:
On Fri, 14 Aug 2020 17:35:14 +0100, David Hill wrote:

On 14/08/2020 16:53, David wrote:
I am having limited success growing fertilised courgettes.
Some get fertilised, but most not.

At the moment I have some male flowers and some female flowers but all
the flowers appear to be closed.
If they are closed all day, how do the insects fertilise them?

Baffled as usual


Dave R


When I was young we used to pick the male flower, remove the petals and
insert it into the middle of the female flower.

Well, yes, that is what I am trying to do.

However I would prefer the female flower to be open when I do it.
Even better if the male flower is open as well.
Up to now I've had to destroy the petals to get inside.

It would be reassuring to see both male and female flowers open at the
same time to give insects a fighting chance to pollinate naturally.

Anyway, sticky and overcast this morning and some of the female flowers
(but no males) are open, so it may be a morning thing or a weather thing.
I've normally looked after noon.

It is weird that you are having so much trouble. Mine have plenty of
courgettes though the one overshaded by the spuds isn't as productive as
the other and I am making no special efforts to pollinate them at all.

It was an odd year because normally you get at least half a dozen male
flowers before the plant can support any female, but this year mine went
from having a couple of full sized leaves into full production. We are
starting to reach the point of looking for creative new recipes already.

Spiralised couregette omlette tart is the latest way to help use them up.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

It is weird that you are having so much trouble. Mine have plenty of
courgettes though the one overshaded by the spuds isn't as productive as
the other and I am making no special efforts to pollinate them at all.

Could be conditions or variety. My main ones are a different species,
and produce fruit that are good as courgettes up to several kilos.



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 17/08/2020 10:08, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

It is weird that you are having so much trouble. Mine have plenty of
courgettes though the one overshaded by the spuds isn't as productive as
the other and I am making no special efforts to pollinate them at all.

Could be conditions or variety. My main ones are a different species,
and produce fruit that are good as courgettes up to several kilos.

It has been odd this year though. I grow them most years and I have
never known a year like it for a preponderance of female flowers. The
seeds are getting a bit elderly now so germination was a bit poor.

I think it was the excessively warm dry spring that did it. They were
very keen to set fruit ASAP perhaps as a result of the drought.

Last year the peculiarity was no apples here at all (but exotic nashi
pears were fine). I guess it was a badly timed frost or something.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article , Martin Brown
writes
On 16/08/2020 10:59, David wrote:
On Fri, 14 Aug 2020 17:35:14 +0100, David Hill wrote:

On 14/08/2020 16:53, David wrote:
I am having limited success growing fertilised courgettes.
Some get fertilised, but most not.

At the moment I have some male flowers and some female flowers but all
the flowers appear to be closed.
If they are closed all day, how do the insects fertilise them?

Baffled as usual


Dave R


When I was young we used to pick the male flower, remove the petals and
insert it into the middle of the female flower.
Well, yes, that is what I am trying to do.
However I would prefer the female flower to be open when I do it.
Even better if the male flower is open as well.
Up to now I've had to destroy the petals to get inside.
It would be reassuring to see both male and female flowers open at
the
same time to give insects a fighting chance to pollinate naturally.
Anyway, sticky and overcast this morning and some of the female
flowers
(but no males) are open, so it may be a morning thing or a weather thing.
I've normally looked after noon.

It is weird that you are having so much trouble. Mine have plenty of
courgettes though the one overshaded by the spuds isn't as productive
as the other and I am making no special efforts to pollinate them at all.

It was an odd year because normally you get at least half a dozen male
flowers before the plant can support any female, but this year mine
went from having a couple of full sized leaves into full production. We
are starting to reach the point of looking for creative new recipes
already.

Spiralised couregette omlette tart is the latest way to help use them up.

Same here. Good crop without any special efforts to fertilise. Just left
them to get on with it.
--
Bert