Chris Collins on how to harvest courgettes
Hi all, lots of you have been writing in to say your courgettes are starting to fruit. Hurray! Keep your plants productive by harvesting a few times a week. The more you pick them, the more they'll flower and fruit. Watch my video below to see how to harvest them.
Dig In grower Julia Pearce from Somerset asks: "Will my courgettes will keep fruiting all summer?"
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Comments
All my courgette flowers seem to be male so far. No sign of any females or fruits. Any ideas?
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I have got ants swarming all over the only female flower (at the moment) on one of my plants. What are they after? I don't think they are doing any harm to the courgette growing underneath it.
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Thank you for that video, it has answered a number of questions for me. I found that once my courgettes started to flower, I was inundated with blackfly. I have since positioned marigolds in pots all around my courgettes and this seems to have helped a great deal. My fruits still seem rather small and not all that plentiful, and I wonder if I am giving them sufficient water? They are all in pots, incidentally. Any guidance on how much water I should give them?
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I also have plant with all male flowers and would like to know WHY???
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I've ben harvesting my courgetts for about 2 weeks now and very tasty they are too! Now how can i keep them for use later?
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Someone at work told me that the flowers can be used for cooking. If that is so, how are they supposed to be cooked?
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Hi Holly, someone said on the allotment the other day that they pick the male flowers and stuff them (like stuffed vine leaves), then fry them. I'm going to try it this weekend. Or you can stuff them with cheese and herbs. Remember to leave the leaves on the female courgette flowers (they have the courgette itself growing underneath them). If you pick the female ones you won't get any courgettes. Happy cooking! Zoe
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My courgette plants are the same - all male flowers. I have had one female flower only from the whole crop! Is there anything I can do? Lynn
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I have the same problem as a few above. Plenty of flowers, healthy bushy plant, no fruit. Is anybody going to respond or are we just talking to ourselves?
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Male flowers usually come first and then the female flowers follow. They are hungry plants, so if they remain small, it may be because they have used up all the nutrients in the compost. Buy a liquid feed and feed them once a week. (Follow the instructions on the bottle and don't be tempted to give them more than recommended - overfeeding is just as bad as underfeeding.)
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How do I tell the difference between male and female courgette flowers? The vid isn't working here on my blackberry.
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Apparently stressed plants only produce male flowers, so it's a strong sign that your courgette plant is underfed or watered, or perhaps has been planted out too late. I think they can recover though, so just start watering it, and adding a liquid feed (like the person above says, once a week), or add some compost over your soil to give it a boost. Liquid feed and water is probably the most immediate solution though. I hope that helps.
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Okay - I spotted 1 courgette. Also more flowers are yet to emerge, does that mean the one with a courgette under it I shouldn't pick because it's female? Soz, I never even knew about all this at all!
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Wakem, common to get Male flowers all at the start, the female fruit bearing flowers will come with time....
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hobnailboots, keep the courgettes plentiful in water, in pots aim to keep the compost moist at all times. perhaps consider 'planting' a hollowed out baked bean tin can or a juice bottle beside the plants, thus you can fill these up with water to allow the moisture to soak into the compost. as to exactly how much to give them, this will greatly depend on the type of compost used, the size of the plant and the size of the post.
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Holly only pick the male flowers to eat.....the female flowers have a wee 'bulge' behind them, this is the courgette!
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Cryoman, we reply.....just takes some time!
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There's one flower with a courgette behind it, I'll leave it alone. Does anyone know why the flowers are sometimes open and sometimes they're closed?
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I have three courgette plants with lots of flowers but all male aswell, lots of buds still coming though. Have been fed and well watered so is there anything else i can do apart from keeping my fingers crossed?
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Why are the flowers sometimes open, sometimes closed and they keep opening and closing lots of times before they die off?
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Holly, these are probably all the Male flowers we've talked about.
Sals, if your regularly feeding with tomato food and keeping the plants watered enough you've nothing to do, but sit back and wait for the produce to appear!
Remember, the best place to plant a Courgette is in very rich soil (an ideal place is on top of a compost heap! - that very rich open soil is what they love!!)
Masrden43, check yer plant for aphids, the ants may be attracted by the byproduct left by the aphids....
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No the one with the Zuccini under it also opens/closes the whole time, allthough it is now dying off as the zuccini is getting bigger.
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My zuccini is growing well, I could really do with a few more though :)
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Hey! Happy days! I just spotted another little zuccini under a flower! That's actually just made my day!
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BBC garden zucchini works very well with garden tomatoes and onions to make Australian baked zucchini and tomato dish. Yum!
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Sory Gareth - I'm just eager/impatient. I tried the trick of artificially pollinating the female flower with pollen from the male. I now seem to have a slow but steady growth of courgettes. Maybe just coincidence but at least I'm getting fruit! I broke off a male flower, carefully removed the petals so the stamen was exposed, and gently rubbed this on the stamens of a few of the female flowers that were open.
You can tell the difference by the fact that the male flowers tend to be taller with a thin stem, the female ones are much shorter with a thick stubby stem (which is the unformed courgette)
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Picking courgettes at 10cm length (4 inches) gives you only small baby courgettes. They quickly grow to 15 cm (6 inches) and are quite a lot larger and just as tasty. The video shows a courgette which is well in excess of 10 cm. A disadvantage of long courgettes is that they do not keep. There is, however, a variety which produces round courgettes (both green and yellow) which can grow up to the size of a small football and keep well. In my view, it pays to grow both with only a couple of plants of the long variety worthwhile. They produce a very large crop if given sufficient space - getting on for 1 metre square.
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We are amazed at how successful the courgette and salad has been. Great to pop into the garden for fresh food! We ate our first French beans last night, basil is good too. Only problem was the carrots. They looked so healthy and then we watched as a wave of decay descended and made it's way over the whole patch of previously healthy growth.
Thanks Dig-in - first time we have grown any vegetables - fab.
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WE have had so many cougettes this year it has been difficult to find family and friends who want them. In fact a lot have grown on to marrows.I understand if wrapped in newspaper these marrows will store for use up until Christmas. Does anyone have experience of doing this?
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snookerman its true you can preserve these for a while, the smaller ones keep for the longest. however how about making dishes such as courgette soup and freezing this? its tru that you get a glut with the courgette, indeed 2 plants should give enough courgettes for the typical family. how many plants are you growing?
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