My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves, though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

thanks,

Andy.

In article , andrewpreece
writes
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves, though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

The 'cure' is to grow courgettes outside where the temperature is lower
and they will have plenty of space do develop.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

"andrewpreece" wrote in
:

My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the
flower end goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back
towards the base, the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten
blob covered in grey mould. Is there an effective cure?

I had this problem when growing Physalis.

As Alan says, the longterm answer for courgettes is probably grow them
outside as they are quite tough. I didn't have that option for my Physalis
though. If you can't move the plants outside, something you could try to
save this year's crop is what I did:

- open all the doors and windows to improve ventilation
- cut back some of the foliage to allow the air to move
- water a bit less often so the green house isn't so steamy
- pick off any affected flowers or leaves as soon as they seem to be
developing a problem.

Worked for me.

Victoria

Thanks, I shall dig them up and plant them outside - nothing to lose now!

Andy


"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
In article , andrewpreece
writes
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves, though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower
end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the
base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

The 'cure' is to grow courgettes outside where the temperature is lower
and they will have plenty of space do develop.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article , andrewpreece
writes
Thanks, I shall dig them up and plant them outside - nothing to lose now!

You will almost certainly lose the plants if you move them now. Try
giving them more air and space in the greenhouse if possible. Water them
sparingly but regularly, and don't feed them at all.


Our courgette problem is one of glut. We normally grow 2 plants, but
this year we somehow finished up with 5. Now they are all competing to
be the best producers in case we decide to cull. We eat young courgettes
raw with salad in place of cucumber and we cook some in stir fry's etc.
They are very good in a variety of pickles, relishes and chutneys. I
have also found that the peeled flesh when blended makes a good base for
dips, sauces and mayonnaise. So what do we do with the rest of them?
They don't lend themselves very well to freezing or wine-making, and
having grown them we are reluctant to compost them.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Our courgette problem is one of glut. So what do we do with the rest of
them?
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Soup! We suffer from the same problem. They are nice stir fried or fried
with a little bacon when small, but inevitably some head towards becoming
fully fledged marrows. Just make a vegetable soup heavy on courgettes /
marrows. Since they are mainly water they cook down to nothing apart from
the skin. Allow soup to cool then liquidise. We also freeze some of the
courgette soup for Winter.

A couple of our courgette plants are looking a bit poorly this year. Showing
a lot of yellow in the leaves and growing very slowly, some of the leaves
have turned brown and died. The courgettes on these plants are also growing
very slowly and are disfigured with heavy potmarks on the sides. Any ideas
what the problem is and if it is contagious?
I don't know whether to allow them to continue growing, or pull them up and
compost them or bin them.

--
Drakanthus.


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In article ,
Drakanthus writes
Our courgette problem is one of glut. So what do we do with the rest of
them?
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Soup! We suffer from the same problem. They are nice stir fried or fried
with a little bacon when small, but inevitably some head towards becoming
fully fledged marrows. Just make a vegetable soup heavy on courgettes /
marrows. Since they are mainly water they cook down to nothing apart from
the skin. Allow soup to cool then liquidise. We also freeze some of the
courgette soup for Winter.

Ditto. I peel them for most recipes except for mixed pickles. We pick
all fruits quite small whether we have immediate use for them or not.
They keep in the pantry for up to 10 days or so.

A couple of our courgette plants are looking a bit poorly this year. Showing
a lot of yellow in the leaves and growing very slowly, some of the leaves
have turned brown and died. The courgettes on these plants are also growing
very slowly and are disfigured with heavy potmarks on the sides. Any ideas
what the problem is and if it is contagious?
I don't know whether to allow them to continue growing, or pull them up and
compost them or bin them.

That sounds more like a watering problem than a disease. We give ours a
good soak once each day unless we think there is to be rain. If
courgettes stand wet, they can suffer from stem or leaf rot. Try taking
off the affected leaves and all growing fruits to see if that gives the
plant a new start.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article ,
Drakanthus writes
Our courgette problem is one of glut. So what do we do with the rest of
them?
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Soup! We suffer from the same problem. They are nice stir fried or fried
with a little bacon when small, but inevitably some head towards becoming
fully fledged marrows. Just make a vegetable soup heavy on courgettes /
marrows. Since they are mainly water they cook down to nothing apart from
the skin. Allow soup to cool then liquidise. We also freeze some of the
courgette soup for Winter.

Ditto. I peel them for most recipes except for mixed pickles. We pick
all fruits quite small whether we have immediate use for them or not.
They keep in the pantry for up to 10 days or so.

A couple of our courgette plants are looking a bit poorly this year. Showing
a lot of yellow in the leaves and growing very slowly, some of the leaves
have turned brown and died. The courgettes on these plants are also growing
very slowly and are disfigured with heavy potmarks on the sides. Any ideas
what the problem is and if it is contagious?
I don't know whether to allow them to continue growing, or pull them up and
compost them or bin them.

That sounds more like a watering problem than a disease. We give ours a
good soak once each day unless we think there is to be rain. If
courgettes stand wet, they can suffer from stem or leaf rot. Try taking
off the affected leaves and all growing fruits to see if that gives the
plant a new start.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 11:40:58 +0100, "andrewpreece"
wrote:

My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves, though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

Two points gleaned from GQT.
1. Don't wet the leaves or flowers when watering as this causes the
mould. Water straight to the soil.
2. According to Bob Flowerdew you can take cuttings of the tips of
shoots. They will fruit more quickly than new plants would. It might
not be too late to try that now and get some plants to put outside.
I've not tried it. Not sure if the advice was to take cuttings in
the normal way or to layer them on the ground.

Pam in Bristol

Jill wrote:


andrewpreece Wrote:
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower
end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the
base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in
grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

thanks,

Andy.

I have a similar problem on outdoor courgettes yet the same plants are
also producing some excellent (and enormous) vegetables. Have you
found out what this is?



This happened to me as well. The rot seems to start from where the flower
attaches to the fruit, so I break the flowers off now as soon as they are
fertilised. I've had no problems since.

--
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-- Albert Einstein

Jill wrote:


andrewpreece Wrote:
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower
end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the
base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in
grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

thanks,

Andy.

I have a similar problem on outdoor courgettes yet the same plants are
also producing some excellent (and enormous) vegetables. Have you
found out what this is?



This happened to me as well. The rot seems to start from where the flower
attaches to the fruit, so I break the flowers off now as soon as they are
fertilised. I've had no problems since.

--
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-- Albert Einstein

"bigboard" wrote in message
...
Jill wrote:


andrewpreece Wrote:
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower
end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the
base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in
grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

thanks,

Andy.

I have a similar problem on outdoor courgettes yet the same plants are
also producing some excellent (and enormous) vegetables. Have you
found out what this is?



This happened to me as well. The rot seems to start from where the flower
attaches to the fruit, so I break the flowers off now as soon as they are
fertilised. I've had no problems since.


This happened to me last year, but eventually the plants started producing
viable courgettes, which swelled to usable size in about 2-3 days, which
meant that if I was away for a weekend I came back to marrows.

From the RHS website, courgette failure

Sometimes, male flowers are produced initially by plants when day-length is
short. Later, as day-length increases, plants will switch to produce mainly
female flowers. Male flowers are also induced by low temperatures, excess
shade and excessively close planting. Female flower production is promoted
by warm temperatures, and should occur later in the summer.

Female flowers can be identified by the swelling (immature fruit) at the
base of the flower.

Absence of fruits when male and female flowers are being produced suggests
pollination may be at fault. Try hand pollinating, where the male flower is
rubbed against the female.

Fruits swelling only at the top, often with shrivelling and rotting,
indicates incomplete pollination, usually due to cold temperatures. The
problem should decrease as the season progresses. Also too many fruits on
the plant can also cause rotting of small 'fruitlets'. This is the plant's
way of balancing its resources; the problem can be alleviated by harvesting
all usable fruits.

"bigboard" wrote in message
...
Jill wrote:


andrewpreece Wrote:
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though
nothing too serious, but every time a courgette gets going, the flower
end
goes yellow, then brown and soft, then rot proceeds back towards the
base,
the courgette eventually ending up as a soggy rotten blob covered in
grey
mould. Is there an effective cure?

thanks,

Andy.

I have a similar problem on outdoor courgettes yet the same plants are
also producing some excellent (and enormous) vegetables. Have you
found out what this is?



This happened to me as well. The rot seems to start from where the flower
attaches to the fruit, so I break the flowers off now as soon as they are
fertilised. I've had no problems since.


This happened to me last year, but eventually the plants started producing
viable courgettes, which swelled to usable size in about 2-3 days, which
meant that if I was away for a weekend I came back to marrows.

From the RHS website, courgette failure

Sometimes, male flowers are produced initially by plants when day-length is
short. Later, as day-length increases, plants will switch to produce mainly
female flowers. Male flowers are also induced by low temperatures, excess
shade and excessively close planting. Female flower production is promoted
by warm temperatures, and should occur later in the summer.

Female flowers can be identified by the swelling (immature fruit) at the
base of the flower.

Absence of fruits when male and female flowers are being produced suggests
pollination may be at fault. Try hand pollinating, where the male flower is
rubbed against the female.

Fruits swelling only at the top, often with shrivelling and rotting,
indicates incomplete pollination, usually due to cold temperatures. The
problem should decrease as the season progresses. Also too many fruits on
the plant can also cause rotting of small 'fruitlets'. This is the plant's
way of balancing its resources; the problem can be alleviated by harvesting
all usable fruits.

"Jill" wrote in message
...

andrewpreece Wrote:
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though
nothing too serious,
snip
The leaves on my outdoor courgettes have white/grey markings but I assumed
this was normal.
Doesn't seem to cause any problems.

HTH
Dave R

P.S. as noted elsewhere, it helps to break off the flowers once they start
to wither.

"Jill" wrote in message
...

andrewpreece Wrote:
My first attempt at growing courgettes ( in the greenhouse ) is going
badly wrong. There is a little bit of white mould on the leaves,
though
nothing too serious,
snip
The leaves on my outdoor courgettes have white/grey markings but I assumed
this was normal.
Doesn't seem to cause any problems.

HTH
Dave R

P.S. as noted elsewhere, it helps to break off the flowers once they start
to wither.