Ok so i hold my hand up and admit i have a few too many courgette plants!!
I have 5 lovely shiny triffid like courgettes slowely taking over my garden, my dad thinks i should pull a couple up because he says there is no way ill use that many courgettes i beg to differ though, im found lots of wonderful recipes for courgette, they blend invisably into spagetti bolognaise and my kids don't even know they are there .. tee hee, not to mention courgette tea bread or marrow chuckney... which i also LOVE!
Anyway! ... to the problem.
My courgettes have been trying to fruit for well over a month now but the courgettes get to about 2"-3" long and then start to rot, i thought it might be a pollenation problem so i tried to hand pollenate but that doens't seem to be helping.
At first they seemed to rot from the flower end but the weather was quite wet so i put it down to the damp clinging to the flowers, so i started to knock the flowers off when they looked like they'd finished with them.
Now the flower end rot has stopped but the courgettes are STILL not maturing they grow for a while then they shrivel up like they are dehydrated? i've checked the soil and it seems damp a few inch's down, i gave them a good soaking with a hose to the soil (so i missed the leaves) yesterday but i can't work out what the problem is??
Could it still be lack of pollenation? I thought perhaps i was just being impatient but everyone else seems to be eating courgettes *sob* and i'm still buying mine...
Im in the Northwest if that helps.