Medwyn Williams advises on growing courge es and the best varieties of beefsteak tomatoes
Medwyn says: It used to be said that a marrow is a courgette when it’s under
15cm (6in) in length and it grew to a marrow when it was over that size – or a marrow is an overgrown courgette and a courgette is an immature marrow! These days, however, breeders are doing excellent work with courgettes, with many different types available to cover different periods of the season.
They're tender and frost will destroy the plant, so it pays to sow a little later than you might think to make sure that when the plant is ready to go outdoors the weather is also ready. I sow seed between early and middle May to plant outdoors from early June in a prepared bed with some well rotted manure or garden compost incorporated.
Courgettes don’t like strong winds as the foliage is delicate and can easily be destroyed, as well as the plant being rocked about in its position and damaging the root system. Sow seed on edge in a tray or pot and as soon as they've germinated pot them up individually into 9cm (3½in) pots in multi-purpose compost. They grow well under cover and I've grown them early enough to stage at Chelsea in my polytunnel and in grow bags or 10 litre pots.
Crop the fruit regularly so the plant will continue to produce the fruit for many weeks, the modern F1 hybrid varieties are very prolific. Fruits vary from pale green to bright yellow, with some having stripes and others speckles. There are some varieties bred specifically for pot growing and are useful to have on your patio.
This year I'm stocking a variety that should make it even easier to grow some really tasty courgettes. ‘Sure Thing' F1 is a parthenocarpic plant (the production of fruit without fertilization of an egg in the ovary) that bears fruit early in cool, cloudy conditions, even when there are no bees or male flowers around to help pollination. A nice yellow variety with white stripes along its length is
'Sunstripe' F1. Also try ‘British Summertime’.