Courgette

Cucurbita pepo

You pick courgettes small all summer long and the flowers are good to eat too. One plant spreads wide and gives a lot of fruit. Pick often. A courgette left for a few days grows into a marrow and slows the plant down.

Looking after it

Water: Courgettes need a lot of water, so keep the soil moist all summer. Water the base, not the leaves. A small pot buried next to each plant and filled with water sends it straight to the roots. Feeding: Rich soil is a must. Dig plenty of compost or well-rotted manure in before planting and in good soil they need little more. In a pot, give a high-potassium liquid feed every 10 to 14 days once the first fruits swell.

Harvest and keeping

Cut them at 10 to 12 cm long, while they are small and tender. In good weather, check every day or two, because one plant can give three or four a week. You can pick the male flowers without losing any fruit. Courgettes keep a few days in the fridge. Eat them while still firm.

What can go wrong

Powdery mildew. From midsummer, white powder covers the leaves, worse in dry soil. Keep the soil moist and water the base of the plant. Cut off the worst leaves.
Slugs and snails. Young plants, flowers and small fruits get eaten. Protect plants after planting out, or sow indoors so they go out bigger.
Fruit rotting or not forming. In a cool early summer, few insects carry pollen and small fruits rot from the tip. It passes as the weather warms. You can also pollinate them by hand with a male flower.

Growing facts: RHS, UC ANR and seed-company sowing guides. Courgette care: RHS. How many to grow: Virginia Tech extension. pH: Virginia Tech extension. Keeping: Kansas State and University of Missouri extension.