If the flowers dropping off are on plain, thin stalks, relax — that's completely normal. Those are male flowers. Each one opens for a single day, sheds its pollen, and falls. A healthy courgette plant sheds a lot of them, and it means nothing is wrong. The only version of this worth acting on is when a female flower — the one with a tiny courgette behind the petals — or a small fruit yellows, shrivels and drops. That points to a pollination miss or uneven watering.

Tell male from female before you worry

This one distinction settles most cases:

  • Male flower: plain, thin stalk, nothing behind the petals. Dropping is normal.
  • Female flower: a miniature courgette right behind the bloom. This is the one worth acting on if it drops.

Watch the plant for a day or two before deciding anything's wrong. In most gardens, what looks alarming is just the steady fall of spent male flowers.

The most common reasons

  1. Normal male-flower drop. Male flowers last about a day, release pollen and fall. Not a fault, needs no fixing — and it's the great majority of "flowers falling off" cases.
  2. Blossom-end rot from uneven watering. In a warm temperate summer, this is the more likely genuine fault. Young fruit that yellows and rots at the blossom (far) end isn't a pest or a disease you caught — it's a moisture problem. Swings between dry soil and heavy watering disrupt the plant's calcium uptake and the fruit rots from the tip.
  3. Unpollinated female flowers dropping. Happens in the odd cool, grey spell when bees aren't flying, but it's less common here than in colder zones. The tiny fruit behind an unpollinated female yellows, shrivels and drops.
  4. Stress. Heat, a cold snap, or root disturbance can make a plant shed flowers and small fruit.

Timing

Courgettes are frost-tender, so they go in after the last frost — the temperate frost period runs April to November. Sown November to February for a January-to-April harvest, the plant has a long, warm run, which is exactly why steady summer watering is the thing to get right: the season is long enough that consistent moisture, not pollination luck, is usually what decides your crop.

What to do now

  • Confirm which flower is dropping. Plain stalk = male = normal. Tiny courgette behind it = female = worth acting on.
  • Even out your watering. This is the key fix here. Mulch to hold soil moisture steady and water regularly rather than letting the bed dry out and then flooding it — that's what prevents blossom-end rot.
  • If female fruitlets are dropping unset, hand-pollinate: dab a petal-stripped male flower into each open female on a sunny morning.

What to change next season

  • Mulch and water consistently from the start — the single biggest lever in this zone.
  • Grow at least two plants so pollen is always available for the occasional cool spell.
  • Site plants in full sun and shelter them from cold snaps to reduce stress drop.

Not getting fruit at all? See Why Is My Courgette Not Fruiting in NZ Temperate?, or explore the full NZ Temperate Planting Calendar →.