Growing Courgettes

Growing courgettes is as easy as growing tomatoes and while there are slight differences they are prolific croppers and a few plants can yield a lot of food and they have an old saying of never turn your back on courgettes as if you do another one will have grown. Picking them at around 4-5” (100-125mm) long guarantees more will grow and they really are prolific and actually good for your health and while they do require a basic knowledge this is easily learned.

Grow indoors by planting in April and get a 3” (75mm) pot and fill with compost and make a hole around ½” (13mm) deep and put a seed in and cover with compost and water by standing in a tray with around 1/8” (3mm) depth of water and let it suck it up.

Grow outdoors by planting into prepared ground with well rotted muck and old compost by putting a hole directly into the ground 1” (25mm) deep and inserting two seeds and cover with soil and then either a cloche or glass jar to create a micro climate for it to germinate, if both seeds germinate then remove the smaller and weaker one. Plant at 3’ (1M) centres as these plants need room and always plant in a sunny spot.

Harden off any indoor grown plants before planting outside and plant at 3’ centres outside.

If you are planting in an allotment or crowded garden leave a space of approximately 3 square feet as they take a lot of space up and need this space, they are thirsty plants and need watering most days and as with tomatoes, water the soil and NOT the plant as this rots the leaves and kills the plant ultimately and reduces your yields. When the flowers form this indicates a fruit is about to form and you can actually eat the flowers and many people do, ensure any fruit is clear of the floor as they will rot and you do this by gently lifting the fruit and putting an upturned plant pot under it which keeps it clear of the ground. When the fruit reaches around 4-5” in length then pick it and another fruit will replace it and 6 plants will provide enough fruit to feed an average family. Once your fruit begin to form you feed them with a high potassium feed every 10-14 days and many people use tomato feed as this gives an excellent flavour.

Can you container grow them?

Yes if you have a large enough container and I recommend the round plastic tubs about 1M high filled with quality compost with a high muck content and possibly a few chicken muck pellets thrown in at the end of the previous season as this works for me, but I compost most things and make my own using well rotted muck.

You can grow them in growbags and plant one plant per growbag and if you make a small hole to plant them and another small hole to put a piece of pipe in to water them through you can keep the leaves and fruit dry and potentially lift the growbags onto a bench or similar off the floor.

My favourite is to collect the square 20L containers and clean them out thoroughly and clean them again and drill some 3mm holes in the bottom for drainage and the wide tops are removed to expose the filler neck and some fine crocks are put through here to form about 2” (50mm) on the bottom. Compost is put through the filler neck until it is full and the plant is put into the compost through the filler neck and a hole is drilled into the rear top and a pipe inserted to water through and these are stood in a line on top of a 4’ (1.2M) high wall and the fruit and plant trail which keeps them off the floor.

Last year I grew 100 plants and most were given away to local food banks and many to their recipients who grew them at home for food and this encouraged many to begin growing some of their own food and this year I am looking to grow 250 plants.

Your community is so lucky to have you in it Assassin!

Mrblue2015 wrote:Your community is so lucky to have you in it Assassin!

Its teamwork MrBlue and if everyone brings something to the table then they also positively contribute, talk is cheap and actions speak volumes.

Agreed, actions speak louder than words. And it's team work, but all teams need a leader, and that's clearly another one of your great strengths, again to the benefit of others, so take the deserved compliment!