courgette problem ?

Two strong plants, Get to very large strong looking flower, next morning, there is nothing there, just a chopped stem at the top
I thought it may be slugs, so I put killer pellets down
New flowers arrive and after a couple of days the flowers gone chopped at the neck of the flower

I have googled and it is saying the flower is dropping off as it is not polinated, then shows how to hand polinate using a male flower
Trouble is I do not have any male flowers just the one female on each plant

Any ideas what to do apart from quit courgettes

Jack McH

 

I'm in a simliar boat Jack, plenty of male flowers last week, they've all dropped off but i'm yet to see a femail flower

I just think they don't like the constant weather swings this year. I'm at a loss too.

 

I think its due to the contraceptive pill being peed into the water supply..

 

Yep same here....no exaggeration ...i've had a dozen or so Male flowers on my Pumpkins and Marrows...yet only 3 female on the pumpkins and 2 on the Marrows...

 

How long is pollen viable for if you keep a male flower in the fridge? Couple of days?

 

Wow didn't know you could do that

 

Neither do I, but if you can keep sperm alive by cooling it then I don't see why you can't do the same with pollen, after all it stays viable on the bees for a while.

I once made enquiries about Cryogenics, but they wanted hundreds of thousands of pounds to freeze me. Told them they were having a laugh as the local butcher said he could freeze me for 50p a pound.

 

If you go to Iceland you can freeze for free...

 

Dunno. But for the Kiwi greenhouse crop in Guernsey they froze pollen from one year to the next (in case the flowering of the, separate variety, males did not coincide with the females, and then used a sort of reverse-vacuum-cleaner to "apply" it!

So I think its worth a punt.

But I prefer JWK's idea of getting a self-pollinating variety. I'm Deffo. going to do that next year, thanks John. Every year I (and most others) have a barren period at the beginning of the season whilst the plants get their act together, and in a cool/wet year its even more dire ... I mean: we should be in "Full Glut" by now ...

I might even plant one or two in the greenhouse - with a view to ripping them out if we subsequently get the right sort of summer.

My Squash are not going to hold any fruit this year ... second year running.

I'm also planning to plant a hedge all around the veg plot to improve shelter. Its not particularly exposed now, but there is still some wind & thus "chill" I expect ... and sadly I can't afford to build a nice wall around it :(

Something like the new walled "Jubilee" garden at East Ruston Old Vicarage would do me :