My courgette thread =D

[Derry]

Helloooooooooooooooooo =]

In the garden, we has 2 courgette plants that were shop-bought.. One has had 2 fruits that have gone a bit manky at the ends? The fruit was green, and was swelling nicely, but then the ends started to go yellow and shrivelled =[ Ive left the smallest one on, i think its unsavable, but today i picked the bigger one =/




The other shop-bought courgette is HUGE. Loads of leaves, and theyre really big. Its also got lots of flowers and thus lots of fruits. But the leaves are mottled.. i dont know what it is? It doesnt really seem to be affecting plant growth too much . Anyone know what it is?




We also have 2 plants that we've grown from seed. Theyve started to get female flowers on [and therefore have the CUTEST yellow courgettes). I just wanted to show these ones off tbh.. haha. The one has something happen to the stem? Its all split.. Its been raining quite a lot, and theyve been out of the greenhouse for at least a week [ive been away for 4 days], so i dont know if thats the problem?




And these are the cute yellow fruits

[Derry]

the ones that are rotting [first pic] are in the garden. its very clay-y soil and does get quite boggy.. put the straw under them to keep them off the ground, but maybe i shouldnt have done?

the big leafed plant is in a pot, also with straw. i do water it from below, but i suppose it could be the rain.. never grown courgettes before =] i dont think its something bad because the mottle-ness is quite uniform across the leaves?

im so proud of the yellow ones ^-^ theyre so tiny though.. no more than an inch long atm

[MKG]

At the back of my head somewhere is a vague memory of reading something about courgettes which didn't get fertilised when they were in flower rotting like that - some of mine on every plant do that. The rest are fine. I think it's just pot luck - was there a bee around at exactly the right time? sort of thing.

The leaf mottling is definitely just rain - it doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the plant's performance.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

No the leaf mottling isn't rain - it's the variety of courgette!!! Lots of them have leaves with mottling like that. If rain was the problem then they'd all look like that!

Any female flower that doesn't get pollinated rots off - don't try to eat the little ones that haven't been pollinated! They're not very nice. Just pick them off and put them in the compost heap.

The yellow fruit look a bit rude!

[Odsox]

I'm afraid I must disagree with everyone again

Mottled leaves on some varieties of courgettes and especially marrows is perfectly NORMAL.
That's just the way they are.
No more a problem of the rain than variegated ivy.
You would be hard pressed to get rain to fall that evenly on a slanted leaf too.

MMM beat me to it

[red]

yeh i agree the silver white mottled is normal - dunno what it is but we always ahve it and does not effect crop. if you get yellow mottling.. that could be mosaic virus.. which is bad.

you always get some fruit rot - it just happens. pick them anyway to encourage the plant to make more.

[pumpy]

Yep, it's always a good idea to hand-pollinate the flowers with a small artists brush...( the brush, not the artist!), even when the plants are outdoors. Once the flower shows signs of dying off, nip it off, other-wise it will rot-back & contaminate the courgette.

[MKG]

Well, how odd! The two I have growing in the open have that leaf mottling. The two I have in the greenhouse (exactly the same variety) don't.

Mike

[Derry]

The yellow fruit look a bit rude!

i thought exactly the same


the rotten fruits have been picked off to stop it [the rot] going back into the plant
my mom & dad have eaten 4 courgettes yesterday and today in a stirfry and have said that theyre rather quite very nice

and thankye for clearing up the mottling. its only the one plant thats got it, but i didnt think it was anything major as the plant is still flowering & fruiting =]

[red]

next you will be asking for all those courgette recipes!

[Milims]

The yellow fruit look a bit rude!

MMM you're very naughty - you made me go back and have a look!

[Millymollymandy]

Oh nobody was forcing you to, Milims.

[Derry]

next you will be asking for all those courgette recipes!

ive got an allotment book, and its also a cookbook =D chocolate and courgette cake, anyone?

[Derry]

ill find it out if you want?

[red]

i made teh riverford recipe for that once - was good.