What the dickens us going on with my courgettes?

[FreezerBird]

They're TINY. The plants themselves - started off in pots and planted out. Usually they romp off all over the place and end up gigantic.

Not this year. They've barely grown bigger than when I planted them out, but this week have decided to flower.

I don't have a note of when I planted them but if anything possibly on the late side. Certainly I've been vaguely thinking they're a bit small but will catch up, but I am surprised to see the flowers.

have you prepared the soil with manure/compost?

Mine are rubbish too. Have hardly grown since I planted them out. I will be lucky to get any courgettes this year. So I would like to know the answer to this as well.

It's a new bed so the soil should be good - plenty of compost went in when we prepped it. And other things in the same bed are doing fine.

Mine too. Ditto the tomatoes in the greenhouse - a few green ones and not one is helping by ripening. This time last year and every other year, we've had a glut and can't give them away fast enough.

It's been a funny year. Several things have started off and then stalled and stayed small. Carrots have refused to germinate at all.

The exceptions are the rhubarb, spinach, purple sprouting broccoli (which is taking over the world), and the tomatoes which are forming some sort of jungle but, as for a pp, not ripening yet.

No difference in prep or care for any of them. Just seems like some things are having a really off year.

Similar story here. We harvested our first and what looks like only courgette today. Everything else: peas, beans, rhubarb, tomatoes, salad, beetroot, is very stunted with very little fruit.

I had a problem with cucumber plants not growing. I am now on the third lot and these are now growing. Some buds but no flowers yet

Mine were very slow to get started this year and first flowered about the same size. They've grown massively in the last 2 weeks though so I wouldn't give up hope if you planted them on the late side.

The courgette genies all visited my home this year. We are swamped in them this summer, first time in at least 10 yrs!

My plants are ridiculously big - my greenhouse looks like day of the triffids with the courgette and tomato plants both so huge that they're growing into a huge combined mass. Think I might have to remove some of them to give any a chance....
I haven't had any successful courgette fruit yet though. They're getting to around two to three inches long and then either shrivelling up or going mouldy and brown. Hopefully will have more luck soon but think the lack of consistent dry / warm weather is an issue as the greenhouse is incredibly humid - making it VERY popular with slugs.

What are your preferred slug removal methods?

The same thing happened to my tomatoes and peppers. I was blaming the compost. Actually my own sown courgette failed as well but the one plant I bought is thriving.
On the bright side you won't be eating courgettes with everything this year.

Slug removal - I use an organic grit as a barrier until the plants are big enough to fend for themselves. I can't remember the name. Also have a tiny pond with frogs so hopefully they keep the slugs under control.

This has given me so much hope! Everything on my plots is stunted. This is why lonely women with cats used to get accused of cursing the crops- its just weird and inexplicable.

My french beans should be shooting off the top of the wigwam and they've barely made it to the first layer and don't have the strength to hold on - 12 miniature plants have given 8 miniature beanlets. My spinach beet came up but sat at 2 leaf stage for literally 2 months until the seed leaves scenesced, never putting on any more leaves. My aubergines made it to 4 leaves and are 1.5 inches tall after 3 months. 3 of my mange-tout grew normally and are towering over the spindly dwarves in the rest of their row. And yes, I have a matching courgette OP. What's going on?

Should say - given me hope because I thought I'd poisoned the plots or done something horribly wrong somehow. But if it's a general curse then hopefully next year will be better...

I've had to chuck one of my courgettes on the heap already- mildewed and sickly! Weirdly, my tomatoes are the very best I've had in years. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I've absolutely no idea op, but had to say how much I enjoyed the thread title!

Only thing doing well this year is my potatoes and red cabbages. Everything else, poor germination, stunted looking and just not that great. We haven’t really had anything of the plot yet.

Same here! I think it’s the weather (I’m in SE). We’ve had some runs of dry weather, not that much regular rain - just some heavy rain then days/weeks of not much then heavy rain again.

Last year I had two monster plants. This year two crappy ones.

My runner beans are doing ok though.

Ours have done fine - we lost a couple to slugs, as per usual, but the other three are generating lots of veg. The broccolis aren't up to much, the beans are fine, gooseberries a bit low, rhubarb massive.

Strange. My courgette plants are huge and fruiting madly same as last year. They do have huge amounts of sun though. I sowed mine directly onto my plot in late May and added a few more in mid June when lots didn't germinate.

All my tomatoes have died. I think it was some sort of virus or blight. I got about 10 tomatoes from 6 plants. All 4 of my cucumbers died as well..They started well but I got exactly one (admittedly very nice) cucumber to eat before.they wilted and died.

My chillies are small but finally producing chillies.
Green beans are quite bushy but no flowers so far. Spinach and chard completely ruined by leaf miner. All the leaves wee affected so I ended up.composting the spinach and am considering the same for the chard
Onions not.too bad but the garlic is tiny

Strawberies and small raspberry bush ) pot dwarf variety) have produced not one fruit

The only thing we have eaten loads of is lettuce

All of.mine are/were outside in.containers ( except the onions and garlic which are in a corner of a flower bed)

My efforts have been much less successful than last year when I got.loads of.tomoatoes, beans, lettuce and even a.few.butternut squash

@NotMaryWhitehouse I've chucked at least a dozen mildewy courgettes so far from my three plants. Hoping the decent weather this week might stop my greenhouse from being so damp - I'm fed up with having to remove numerous slugs every morning.....

Tomato plants coming on ok with a few fruit on each but they're in danger of being swallowed alive by the ever expanding (but fruitless) courgette forest....

interesting, my courgette plants look great, flowering freely but the actual fruit is just not growing

Having similar problems in the South of England!

Tomatoes are weeks behind where they were last year. Aubergines barely awake. Chillies stunted. Beans non existent.

On the flip side, potatoes, onions, and garlic doing brilliantly.

It's a very odd year.

@Avocuddles yes hopefully! I actually had to Chuck the whole plant! The other plant looks ok, but like you, I must remain ever vigilant against the slug army......