very leggy squashes

[Flummery]

They don't look like courgettes at all! Here's mine - emerged about a week ago. Are you sure you haven't got the labels switched? Have you got anything looking like this?

[Mchanen]

Nope they are out of the courgette packet that i got out of the grow your own magazine (All Green Bush variety) - so if they aren't courgettes i don't know what they are lol

By the way they are in 25" pots- so quite large but wanted to make sure they were big enough for the courgette plants as i have heard it is easier to keep plants watered in larger pots then small ones.

[Alice]

I would agree with Flummery - they don't look like courgettes - see Flummeries pic for what they should like.

Curcubits are sprawly plants and I don't stake them but just let them sprawl.
I never plant them deeper than they were originally as they tend to get neck rot if the stem is buried.

I would plant another couple of courgette seeds McHanan and see what comes up. You've got plenty of time.

[Mchanen]

Yea i think i will plant more seeds, i'm sure they are courgette seeds- just very leggy seedlings i think.

I did leave them to germinate in the cupboard longer then i should have done (They were tiny when i checked them on a Thursday then over the weekend grew to 6inchs!) and thought they would grow there true leaves one planted but they just flopped- though they are growing something between the two leaves so aren't dead!

Oh well i'll just plant some more seeds and leave those ones to grow and see what happens

[Mchanen]

Oh and if they don't look like courgette plants does any one have any ideas of what they could be? I'm curious as to what they will turn out like now

[taff]

They are courgette plants, it's just usually, the leaves on the end form the two outer ones you see on Flummerys picture and are nestled against or an inch or so from the soil. I hate to say it, but I don't think they're going to do very much.
Try putting them in a small pot to start with, then put them in the big one when they're the size of flummerys if you don't want to keep potting on.
Or, put the pots in the greenhouse or outside now, and plant straight into them, two to a pot, and thin the weaker one. You can still re-use the compost in the pots because those seedlings won't have taken much out of it.

[FoxHillGardener]

By the way they are in 25" pots- so quite large but wanted to make sure they were big enough for the courgette plants as i have heard it is easier to keep plants watered in larger pots then small ones.

25" pots! So that's my idea of scale sorted. I was thinking more the 3" kind of thing - like Flummery's picture. Not so thin as I though then, but very lanky - getting on for a foot before the seed leaves is not a good look

[Mchanen]

Lol that's my thinking- i'm going to try earthing one up- just to see what happens and sow some more courgette seeds anyway- so we shall see how it goes anyway.

Thanks everyone- i appreciate the advice

[Flummery]

Nope they are out of the courgette packet that i got out of the grow your own magazine (All Green Bush variety) -.

So were mine. I've never seen a courgette with a long thin stem like that before. They have a tendency to be a bit hairy and prickly if anything.

It's a misery wraped in an enema!

[Flummery]

Mine are in a 4" pot. One per pot. They'll stay there till I harden them off and put them out in June.

[Alison]

Didn't look like courgettes to me either, far too thin but that could be an optical illusion. If the pot is 25" across, I assume that the stems are now about a foot before the seed leaves so I don't hold out much hope for them really. Do you actually mean a 25" pot, that really is huge. You wouldn't need a pot as big as that even for the full sized plant and quite frankly I don't think I'd be able to lift it when full! I have some half barrels about that size which I use for bedding plants and I have to rock those across the patio to move. Suggest you plant some more in 3" pots (or 5" max) and then plant on as you go. That also has the advantage that the pots don't take up much room (I germinated mine in 3" pots on the window ledge) either. Don't worry, you'll be fine, courgettes grow dead quick.

[Mchanen]

Silly me LOL i actually meant 25cm pots- no wonder you think i'm growing in gigantic pots.

I'm so ditsy sometimes

Well i will be sowing more seeds when i get home- and i think the reason those one's got so leggy was cause they grew so quickly when germinating in the cuboard- i'm guessing they are so leggy cause they were searching for light.

Well at least i know better for next time and i can put this mistake down to being a newbie at all this

[MrsC]

They look like cukes?

[pdblake]

I'd pot them up into bigger pots and bury them up to their necks, though 25cm is quite big anyway. Perhaps you can find something deeper if not wider?

Saying that, you're not too late to sow again, though I'd start in smaller pots this time

[Florence Fennel]

I'm ecstatic, mine look like flummery's! Done something right for a change. I did grow them last year and had a fantastic harvest. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you shouldn't have started them off in the dark? In my experience (little though it is) they only take a few days to germinate in small pots. Good luck with the next lot.