Vegetable Growing 2025

Yes I suffered a lot of unpollinated courgettes last year and they did exactly that. I think it was just too wet and cold last summer for the pollinators to bother!

 

Possibly, I used to take the males off and strip the big petal back then shove it in an open female, sounds aggressive but it works.

I had Bangladeshi neighbours for a while and as said earlier they preferred to fry the males dipped in batter.

I guess it takes all sorts.

 

I go round my plants having fun with a small water colour paint brush (a different brush for different vegetables)

 

Yes I’ve searched and just get more confused. I thought the point of removing male flowers from cucumbers was to prevent having bitter tasting fruits? So, I will leave the cucumbers to do their own thing (except to remove any first small flowers/fruits to allow the plant to grow) and leave the male flowers on the courgettes, maybe try the paint brush technique. Fun time ahead

 

This morning's courgette situation is that I have 3 lovely male flowers fully open, but the female has already given up and dropped off! Looking at the emerging flower buds, there's lots more males coming and only one female that I can see. So looks like things are going to progress in the expected way from now on.

 

Years ago I used to grow a variety of greenhouse cucumber called telegraph, you used to remove the male flowers, as you say, to stop the fruit being bitter and full of large seeds,then they started breeding all female types for greenhouse growing,
The outdoor ridge types are a different species and won't produce fruit unless they are pollenated by male flowers.

So it all boils down to which category your cucumber plants belong to.

Most greenhouse ones are all female varieties these days.

 

Now realise that cucumber marketmore is a ridge type and not an all female variety so will need male flowers and insect pollination, so that’s my plan, plus a tiny paint brush to help things along thanks for all your help and advice today. Have a good weekend.

 

Oh dear, that’s not good news. I would remove the oldest males in the hope some females arrive before he shuts up shop! Hope things improve on the courgette front for you. Have a good weekend

 

Actually courgette flowers only last one day, mostly one morning in hot weather, so you need male and females opening on the same morning, its always slow at this time of year but its amazing how things pick up as the plants get bigger.
The plant knows what its doing, and mostly at this time of year they need to be bigger and growing away really well to support fruits.
Male flowers are usually the ones that come first, but you do get a few females that dont make it.

 

Yes, it's very warm here and the male flowers that were open this morning have already closed.

 

I have grown it for the past 3 years and find it very useful for summer greens. The plants grow into a bush about 4 foot high and so far have had very few pests unlike all the cabbage family. This year mine went to seed a bit soon so I cut it down and am hoping it will shoot again. I've sown some more in may anyway as I'm hoping to extend it's season.

 

A lot of the big seed firms get their seed from abroad anyway as our seasons are not so reliable for ripening seed.

 

Courgette flowers are lovely coated in batter and deep fried.

 

I sow spring onions several times during the year. If the first ones aren't all eaten by the time the others come I give them a bit of fertilizer and leave them to mature into small dried onions which are ideal for making piccallili (or other pickle, picallili is my favourite).

 

the actual organs are active for a while longer so you can rip through the petals and stil collect or deliver pollen