Kitchen Garden Forum

I've always wondered why courgette plants always produce male flowers first and I'm still none the wiser - does anyone know why this is?

In the meantime, I've got some super little courgette plants coming on nicely and they are starting to form flowers. Of course, all the first ones are male but the first embryonic female ones are starting to show as well. Does it give the plant any advantage if I remove the early male flowers (leave one or two amongst my 5 plants to pollinate the females) or will they just die of shame at the thought of it?

Edit: I know we all know exactly what courgettes look like, but it's such a pretty little thing, I can't resist posting a photo of my (so far) windowsill grown plants. These are left over from last year's courgette seed, Astia from Wilkinsons. I only sowed a few, but 100% germination. I've also got a couple of yellow courgette plants.

I must confess I dont interfere with my courgette plnts and just let them grow "au natural".
It doesn,t seem to interfere with their ability to produce more fruit than we can usually eat.

Just off to plant some of this months free seeds from the mag

I generally leave them, they fall off by themselves when the females get bigger. Your plants look well healthy & big btw, mine are just at their first few real leaves but this weather will have them taking off. I have no idea why the males come first & they never get big enough to look like they help with fertilisation but they obviously do somehow!

Dear Vivienz,
courgettes need to be pollinated before they will produce fruit so leave your boy flowers alone. This is why planting out courgettes early often fails to produce fruit as they are no insects around to do the "deed". Unpollinated fruitlets often grow misshapen or rot off from the flower back into the fruitlet.

There are varieties that are self fertile such as partenon and cavilli and they will say so on the seed packet. These are the varieties to grow for early and late crops or if you live in an area that is marginal for growing courgettes because of a cold and or wet climate.

If you are growing a lot of courgettes then there is a really nice thing you can do with the male flowers. They can be picked (not all of them) stuffed with rice and veggies (leftover roasted ones are really good); then dip them in a thin batter and deep fry them until golden. The contents of the stuffing mixture is flexible and anything savoury can be used.

Regards Sally Wright.

I now always pinch out the first few flowers, including the female ones. I find the plants get going quicker and make stronger plants.

Thanks, all. I have a couple of varieties on the go with at least 2 of each, so I will pinch out the first flowers on one of each variety and leave the other alone. It will be interesting to see if there is any difference.