Courgette growing guide
These cucurbits are a productive crop. Once they ramp up into full production, it’s entirely possible for you to get sick of picking and eating them.
Overly efficient is how you could describe courgettes (as the French know them) or zucchini (in Italian). Once these cucurbits ramp up into full production mode, they generally pump out more fruit than a gardener’s heart ever desired.
Four plants per household is more than enough. Plant any more and you’ll be overwhelmed by the crop!
Sow seeds from September to January in warm areas; October to December in cooler areas. Transplant seedlings from October to January in warm areas; November to December in cooler areas. Grow in full sun – six or more hours a day. Harvest between eight to 12 weeks.
You can sow courgette seed undercover in trays in spring, and you’ll have decent sized seedlings ready to plant out when it gets warm enough – which is usually after Labour Weekend across most of the country, although wait a week or two in the coldest regions.
You can plant seedlings from mid spring until mid summer in warm areas, and late spring to early summer in cooler places.
Plant the large seeds about 2cm deep. If planting direct into the garden, sow two or three seeds in groups 1m apart, then thin to the strongest plant once seeds germinate.
Or start in trays of moist seed-raising mix. Seeds should germinate in about a week. Space plants at least 1m apart in the garden. If growing courgettes in pots, only plant one per pot.
Grow courgettes in full sun in rich, well-drained soil that has been enriched with compost and sheep pellets. Because courgettes have large leaves, they can wilt after being transplanted. Transplant in the evening or shade them for a few days while they settle in.
Give plants a decent soak once or twice a week and lay a thick mulch such as pea straw around plants to conserve moisture (just make sure the mulch is not touching the stem of the plant as it can cause it to rot). Feed plants fortnightly with liquid fertiliser.
Pick fruit once they reach the size you desire (before they turn into marrows, which happens in a matter of days). Eat the blossoms too; stuff them with herbs and ricotta or soft goat’s cheese or dip in batter, then shallow fry in olive oil and serve hot.
Plain green ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘Blackjack’ are reliable classics but be adventurous and grow one or two of the more unusual varieties.
Cool colour-blocked ‘Zephyr’ is a yellow courgette that looks like it has been dipped in lime green, ‘Cocozelle’ has streaky watermelon skin and ‘Solar Flare’ has bright yellow fruit.
Or go wild with long, curly ‘Rampicante’, also appropriately named trombone squash.
Its curly-whirly fruit can be eaten while young and tender as a standard courgette or grown on throughout summer until its fruit stretch to more than 1m long.
Ribbed heirloom varieties such as ‘Costata
Romanesco’ and ‘Florence Long Ribbed’ have firmer, tastier flesh than their modern hybrid counterparts.
And don’t forget about scallopini, the courgette’s scallop-shaped cousins.
Just make sure you eat them when they’re around 7cm in diameter as the large fruit is pretty flavourless. ‘Jaune et Verte’ is a pretty yellowcream scallopini that develops green stripes when fully mature.
Watch out for slugs and snails on seedlings as they can chew through the main stem.
Seedlings planted too early in spring will fail to thrive and may develop blossom end rot. It doesn’t affect the whole plant, so just pick off and dispose of blemished fruit.
By the end of summer it’s all but inevitable that courgettes will succumb to the fungal disease powdery mildew. To delay the onset, water in the morning so the plant has the day to dry off, and water the root zone not the leaves. Remove infected plants in autumn (put in the rubbish or burn, don’t compost) so spores don’t overwinter.
Courgettes are promiscuous cross-pollinators with others of their type. This means their seed will not come true, and the next generation will differ from the parent plant.