With decreasing diameter the influence of surface-related effects becomes increasingly important for an understanding of the optical properties of semiconductor nanowires. We present time integrated and time resolved photoluminescence studies of single zincoxide nanowires with different diameters. We analyze the changes in the optical spectra for wires with different surface-to-volume ratios, present optical spectra of single wires at different excitation densities, and study the time-resolved dynamics of the surface related and donor-bound exciton related emission lines for a single nanowire at low temperatures.