courgette help

[lfcjohn]

I have never grown courgettes before and would appreciate some help. Can i grow them in grow bags. can they be trained to climb up a mesh fence and when is it a safe time to plant them out as they are getting quite large
Many Thanks
John

[Alice]

Hello John, good luck with your courgettes. Yes, you can grow them 2 to a grow bag if you want to do it that way. I don't think you need to train them to climb up anything as they don't grow very tall. They don't need staked, there normal habit is to be a bit sprawly. They won't stand any kind of frost so technically you can't put them out til risk of frost is past BUT , if you want to risk it, and you're around to look after your plants, you can harden them off and put them out as soon as the weather is fine. Keep an eye on the forecasts and protect them with fleece if the weather turns cold or it's frosty. You'll probably get away with it.
You can go for a backup and plant some new ones now - just in case.
Also I find they tend to run out of steam half way through the summer so some later sown ones give you a crop when the early ones have exhausted themselves.
Hope you get loads of courgettes. I just planted mine today.

[margotay]

I have four seeds which I planted and all are doing quite well, the biggest is about 3-and a half inches tall and has 4 good sized leaves. I am giving them some time in the day out in the mini greenhouse,and bringing them in at night,and won't plant them out until the frost has gone.
How big do they have to be before you can plant them outside ? and could you also grow them outside in a big pot or is a grow bag better. We might have enough room for one of them in the raised bed , but I know they can take up quite a bit of room and fancy growing more than just the one.

Thanks, margo.

[terrier]

Whatever you grow them in, they require loads of water to keep them fruiting and I never find growbags particularly easy to keep well watered. I've grown them in large pots and in the ground, the ones in the ground always do ten times better than the ones in pots. Don't forget the flowers, stuffed and fried, they're delicious.

[JO,JO]

hi
grew them in the flower borders last year in a really sunny spot watered every day got tons of fruit from two plants,diamant seed from lidl growing the same again this year put alot more plants.

[margotay]

Thanks for that . I wondered myself whether growbags would be able to give them enough water because I thought with the size of them, the roots would go quite deep. I lake the idea of putting a couple in the flower beds too.

margo

[moggssue]

Last year (my first time) I grew some in the veg plot and some in a pot and the ones in the ground gave a much better crop, whether because of the watering or the space I'm not sure! I think they would look pretty in the flower bed, just remember they do grow quite large though so leave them plenty of room.

[dandamegs]

Another vote for the ground.

Don't think they are suited to either growbags, or pots.

Pretty big plants though, so need a bit of room

[crichmond]

Here ya go both links to climbing courgette.

Cheers Chris

Dobies: Courgette Black Hawk F1 Seeds: Perfect for patios!
The Organic Gardening Catalogue

[Alice]

Thanks Crichmond, I didn't know you could get climbing courgettes. Are you growing them ? Do let us know how they do. I can't do anything else new this year but I'm always planning for next year.