Courgettes - Grow Your Own Wants Your Advice!

[Lesley Jay]

Grow Your Own is looking for your advice on growing courgettes. What are your top tips for growing courgettes and maintaining a steady supply of lovely, fresh, tasty courgettes throughout the season? They also want to know what your favourite variety is and why?

As usual the best will be published in the May issue of Grow Your Own. So come on!! It's a big plug for the Grapevine plus you might have your advice published.

[rustylady]

Germinate seeds indoors, individually in 3 and a half inch pots. Usual advice is to sow 2 seeds per pot, but if your seed is fresh both should germinate and you then have to face either throwing one away, or transplanting it into another pot (I hate throwing things away so usually do the latter). Grow on in good light and not too much heat until you can plant outside after last frosts. If you can, dig large (and I mean large) holes and work well rotted compost or manure into the bottom. Backfill, leaving a bit of a depression so if you need to water you can do so where it's needed. Plant courgette plants and stand back. You may need to use some slug/snail protection until they start to grow away. You could also cover with a cloche for some initial protection. The main thing is once they start producing fruit don't turn your back on them - cut young and small (max six to eight inches long). The flavour is wonderful and they're really tender - you can even use them raw in salads. If you leave them any longer than this they will turn into marrows, and they're a bit like sweet peas - the more you cut the more they will produce. Once they set seed production slows right down or stops. If they need watering in a dry spell give them a good soak once a week, it does far more good than a light sprinkle every day.

[Earthbabe]

When planting out it can be helpful to sink the top half of a large drink bottle into the soil so the water/feed can be directed to the roots. It also reduces the amount of surface water which could rot some of the fruit.

Pick small (3-4 inches/8-10cm) and regularly to encourage fruiting. They are also tastier like this and can be cooked whole.

For ease of picking choose a yellow variety or a round one. Good crops can be got from a number of varieties. My best crops last year were from Black Beauty although this year as well as these, Nice de Rond and Gold Rush I will be trying Black Forest which has been bred to be trained up a support reducing the amount of space required and the likelihood of water/slug damage.

[pigletwillie]

I plant 1 seed to a 4 inch pot in April, so that its ready to transplant out in Late May after the danger of frost. By sowing in a bigger pot I don't need to repot and therefore no root disturbance occurs.

The plants are planted outside after being hardened off, in soil that has been very heavilly loaded with well rotted manure. Stuck into the ground next to each plant is an inverted pop bottle with the bottom cut out for watering directly into the roots. This also prevents evaporation in hot weather.

As these plants crop heavilly and are susceptible to mildew I really do whip them hard and throw them out when they start to flag which is usually late summer. In preparation for this I grow replacement plants, sowing the seed in early July ready for planting out in Late August. This gives courgettes right up until the first frosts come. When the courgette is pulled up the ground is reloaded with manure and the replacement plant planted where the original one was. As part of my crop rotation courgettes are treated as gross feeders.

My favourite varieties are De Nice a Fruit Rond which is a pale green round fruit and very prolific and Goldrush or Soleil, both of which are yellow varieties and again very prolific.

All varieties crop better if the fruits are cut before they are too large, in my case about 4-6 inches is fine.

[Sue]

Can I recommend the pale green Lebanese type courgette, I had one plant that amply rewarded me with a summer's full of fruit. Got the seed from Real Seed, it was called White Volunteer. The fruit is firmer, almost avocado like and far less watery than the long thin green types. Very tasty.

As a new grower I was unaware quite how far the plants can travel, I planted it next to my allotment path and it just kept on going, across the path and into my neighbours allotment. They couldn't mow the grass or cultivate that bit of the plot till autumn, I made reparations with handfuls of courgettes.
I shall give it more room this year, a long way from the path.

Slugs are a menace when the plants are tiny, keep covered up till they are stronger, I then found the slugs hiding in the cool interior of the plant when it was larger but doing little damage - useful to keep inspecting though to find the little devils and despatch them.

Watch out too they can balloon up overnight, keep an eye out for any lurking fruit and if you get a glut then What Will I do with all these Courgettes by Elaine Borish is essential reading, cooking nearly all her recipes last year.

Sue

[Poledragon]

Nice a Fruit Rond is one of my favourite varieties, as well as Grey Zucchini and the summer squashes Yellow Crookneck and White Scallop. Choose a variety that isn't the same dark green as the leaves of the plant, so there will be more chance of spotting the fruit whilst still small and tender, and less chance of missing one that subsequently grows into a monster marrow.

Check your plants every day too, as those little courgettes grow incredibly fast.

[berksmike]

My tips are to resist sowing until April, so you can make sure you are free of frost when you plant them out. The seeds germinate quickly and grow even faster so if you sow too early you can get easily caught short.

Sow individually in 3 inch pots and plant out in a sunny position in soil enriched with plenty of humous.
The key to successful cropping is ensure they are watered well and don't dry out.
Keep a close eye on your crop, a courgette can balloon into a marrow very quickly... I check mine every day.

I've always got a good crop from "Defender", a good F1 with resistance to mosaic virus

Hope my two pennies help!

[mandyballantyne]

I would suggest two sowings April and July but not too many plants as the glut you get can be very daunting for a newbie. I planted 2 april and 2 July and had way too many for my use and neighbours and friends.........

Happy growing and eating everyone.

Mandy

[lyndap]

My fav also 'nice a fruit rond'.Lovley raw or cooked.Only way I grow mine abit differant to most people above is that after digging BIG hole,I put chicken poo in the bottom of the hole,then refill with fresh compost,making a mound on top with small moat around it,and plant my seedling into the top of the mound.When ever watering is required,the water goes into the moat(less chance of rot at base of plant).I also cover with pop bottle until plant well established.

[Two_Sheds]

My advice? Don't plant any. You'll be a slave to them. If you really must, just grow one plant per family: that's more than enough courgettes for anyone

[nick the grief]

I keep telling you LJ Green side up what other tip do you need !!

I usually sow when I think I've got space around March/April time I usually plant about 6 & grow 2 or 3 that way I can pick the best two the rest I give away. I have tried various sort ( Including Custard squash for a change one year) but keep coming back to Defender which has good resistance to Mosaic virus and soesn't seem to suffer with mildew as bad and it also gives me a constant supply for weeks on end I also find that as there is usuall more than one at the same stage they tend to hold back a touch where as the 2nd favourite (All Green Bush) seem to go from not quite big enough to Marrows in the blink of an eye for me!

I usually dig an 'ole and pot a good couple of buckets of muck in it then cover this with the soil to make a mound then when I plant them I sink a drinks bottle (the ones my son has for his Hockey with the resalable cap on) along side and cut about 3/4 of the way around the bottom so it hinges then fill this with water the lid slows sown the evapouration and the water gets to the roots.

[suee]

My problem has been eating up the frozen courgettes before the next season's crop starts, though the soup recipe in last year's GYO was a favourite through the winter (1lb courgettes, 1 onion, loads of garlic, 8 ozs potatoes & stock). I grew 'San pasquale' - huge croppers, and 'Nice' round - good for stuffing in summer. I found them both very easy to grow with just a good dollop of manure in the hole, black plastic sheets to surpress the weeds and half a plastic bottle beside each plant for watering.

[smallblueplanet]

I think the half a plastic water/lemonade bottle dug in next to the courgette (pointy/bottletop end down) to get water down to their roots makes watering them very easy.

One of our fave varieties for flavour is 'striato d'italia', it's also a bush variety and doesn't trail 'too' much!

[mikk100]

I agree with two sheds. I bought a plant from a garden centre last year, no idea what variety, and planted it in my allotment with absolutely no experience of having grown anything, I had more than 30 courgettes from it and am still using the frozen ones. I was picking about 3 a day at the peak of its productivity but I must admit, it was a very thirsty plant and I was a bit of a slave to it. Don't know if I was just lucky but I have got some 'odd ball' seeds to try and grow round shaped ones this year, think I might only plant one or 2 though after last year.

[JennieAtkinson]

I have always had great success with Defender in grow bags. I cut the bottom off an 8" pot and sink that into a grow bag (just two per bag), fill the pot with general purpose compost and plant the seedling in that. I then sink another small pot into the bag alongside for watering. That way the roots have plenty of room to grow and all watering is direct to the roots.

Last year I also grew two Defender plants direct into soil which had been fortified by the Bokashi bin compost from work. Didn't get more than two courgettes, but alot of leaves and male flowers. So I won't be trying that again!

The best thing about courgettes is that you always have a vegetable to give away to friends!