Shrivelling Courgettes

We have two Courgette plants growing in large pots. Most fruits so far have not grown fully, but started to shrivel up. Any clues what's wrong?

CFP

 

The flowers haven't been pollinated. Maybe the weather was bad and the bees weren't around or the male and female flowers didn't appear at the same time.
Take those shrivelled courgettes off and more flowers will soon appear.
Rub a little brush or cotton wool ball round the inside of a male flower then round the stamens of the female flowers. You'll get nice big courgettes.

 

Good suggestions from Alice. It is also very dry and they probably need a drink. Courgettes are thirsty plants.

 

UPDATE

So far we have only had one small male flower, which we used to try and articfically pollenate the females. Not much success so far.

However, a friend of ours with the same situation and problem, started watering much more regularly, and has had spectacular results! We've taken to doing this as well. The organic compost in our pots doesn't retain a lot of water, with it mainly congregating in the tray, so we are watering more regularly to ensure the plants get enough.

Any further advice?

Thanks loads
CFP

 

I've never had a problem with courgettes. My neighbours run away when they see me coming with the next lot.
If you're unsuccessful then do as JWk suggests and grow Parthenon next year. They are very prolific. I didn't like them as I think they smell funny (like an old wet mop) But maybe that's just me.

 

Maybe it's lack of pollination that are rotting a few of my small fruits then, I thought it was close proximity to the ground, previous years I had more courgettes than I knew what to do with when I was growing the green varieties, but this year I'm growing a yellow one called 'taxi' there is still plenty of fruit but it doesn't seem to grow as fast or large, ah well they look good and there is enough of them, at least there won't be any waste.