Corgettes - how to maintain them and other questions

[mistersmum]

This is my first year with any veg and I am doing quite well with the corgettes. DS loves running out in the morning to see how much they have grown.
But I have a couple of questions;

1. Do some flowers not produce fruit as I get quite a few with no corgette on the bottom?
2. Should I remove the lower leaves as the crown matures or just leave on?
3. Do they turn in to marrows if you just leave them?
4. Are corgette flowers really good to eat or not? Any recipes if 'yes' please.
5. Any more corgette recipes as I am sick of ratatouille!! Thanks in advance

I have courgettes this year, many flowers don't grow into fruit, I think its because there are so few bees around this year. half the courgettes that start to grow go mouldy as well, I have 10 plants and had just 10 courgettes so far.
I roast mine with honey amongst othe rways, in stews, steamed, and I love them as part of a kebab also lightly seared on the same hotplate/griddle as a staek for a few mins. they can grow into marrows if left, my grandad always left one on each plant to grow big, but then he used to have around 50 plants on his old allottment each year!

can;'t say much more than that, experiementing/learning myself this year, but I am disappointed compared with what my grandad used to get. (my runner beans are not so good this year either, twice as many plants as last year but had half the beans so far, again, hardly any bees around and banging the tops of the canes they grow on hasn't worked very well.

my courgettes havent done very well. Not all the plants will have fruits on, the ones without fruits are the males, i think. They are important to pollenate the females. I had plants this year bred to grow in containers and they seemed to be all female, some strains are bred for this. They have gone to shit now though.

Dont know about the flowers whether you can eat them or not.

mine have gone bonkers

you can stuff and eat the male flowers

this weekend i have made a cake from the green and black's book, some pasties, and some stewed with pasta.

yes they will turn into marrows if you leave them. there is one in my kitchen that may get turned into chutney and may just rot

Courgette flowers dipped in batter and deep fried are delicious.

If you leave them to grow to marrows it will reduce your yield of courgettes - the plant will put all its energy into making one big marrow and will stop producing courgettes.

Courgettes make good soup, which freezes well.

mine did really well, only had 2 plants but a good yield from both of them but then the leaves went grey, and i think they are pretty much finished now.

will def try again next year with more of them.

grey leaves is a form of mould like botrytis. do not compost the leaves/plants, burn them if you can as the mould can lay dormant for years in the ground or compost and re-infect another time

Suspect it's mildew which does affect courgettes. See notes here on organic courgette growing.

thanks for the info, i have discarded the plants into my council garden waste bin and luckily they were grown in large pots so only the compost in there would be contaminated luckily not in the ground.