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Female courgette flowers only - should I pick the veg?

gillian15i6TdBygillian15i6TdBy Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
At the start of lockdown I bought some courgette seedlings which have grown well.  In the last week I've had 6 flowers which I believe are female, and no male flowers.  The flowers last at most a day and then wither.  I understand that, without the male flowers, they will not have been pollinated.


My question is whether I should pick the small courgettes they grew from, as they won't develop, and the plant can refocus its resources - or whether the plant knows what it's doing and they will still grow and so I should leave them and pick them when they're bigger.

I've read a number of things on the internet but everything I read talks about only having male flowers, almost noone seems to have this problem!  Perhaps the plant has been freaked out by being ahead of its normal growing season?

The variety is Early Gem.
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  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Not sure what the problem is. Your photos show courgettes looking very good with the flowers at the end.
    This can be taken when still fresh and stuffed. A great Cretan delight.
    Leave them to do what they are doing.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    Hi gillian, as long as the little baby courgettes keep growing then the flower was fertilised.  When they don't grow or the end starts to go brown then they haven't been 'seen to' but yours look fine.
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    Yes, you can pick them and eat them small but I would wait to be sure they are not pollinated. They often close in that twisted way when they are. Bees could have brought pollen from somewhere else.
  • Sabina13Sabina13 Posts: 113
    I was just coming here to start a thread on the same thing! 

    With my courgettes, pumpkins and even squash, ALL my first few flowers are female. All I read online is how the males show up first and the ladies a little later but I am not observing that at all with my plants. Its a little gutting seeing a baby fruit wither and die after a few days. 

    I wonder if this phenomenon has anything to do with the higher temperatures we're having? Perhaps male flowers form in abundunce in lower temps and females require higher temperatures? 
  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    pansyface said:
    Perhaps your next door neighbour is sitting tearing his hair out and staring at a bunch of male flowers. 😁

    That made me laugh out loud!
  • gillian15i6TdBygillian15i6TdBy Posts: 2
    Ok thanks everyone, I guess I just need to wait and see whether these ones start going bad or whether they keep growing.

    In the meantime I picked a couple of the fresher flowers, stuffed them with cheese and herbs, and fried them for dinner last night :blush:
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    I don't see a problem, I pick mine before they grow too big otherwise they grow into marrows.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Some varieties are self pollinating   so depends which variety you have. If it grows I eat it! 😁
  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    We pick the first few courgettes (with flowers) when they are just 3 or 4 inches long and then let the new courgettes grow bigger.  We feed our courgette, squash and cucumber plants weekly as well as watering them at least three a week in the current hot, dry weather.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    purplerallim said:
    Some varieties are self pollinating   so depends which variety you have. If it grows I eat it! 😁

    A good point there are some parthenocarpic (able to set fruit without pollination) courgettes, Parthenon is the most common, so if you have that type then they will set fruit with or without male flowers.
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