This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Thursday 10 July 2014

Will it be a good year for Courgettes?

The courgette / zucchini plants are growing well and starting to produce lots of flowers. In years past my plants have suffered increasingly from blossom rot where the flowers fall off and don't produce fruits. Recently I read an article that recommended removing the old shrivelled-up flowers once the courgette has been pollinated, to prevent blossom end rot, especially in wet / damp weather - so I must see if this helps. I've five plants & two varieties growing:
Courgette Tondo di Piacenza and
Courgette All Green Bush.


I'm hoping this year will be a good year for courgette harvests! Courgettes are good in stir fries, stuffed, and added to soups and casseroles. They can even be used in cakes and muffins (lots of recipes online).
Above: Two Courgette Tondo di Piacenza plants have been placed in a large pot. The Tondo courgette reach tennis ball size and are described on the seed pack as 'novel fruits with excellent flavour'.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

7 comments:

  1. I hope it is too, so far so good. The weather does seem ideal this year for courgettes. I have 5 plants also, well three are patty pan squash the other two are a yellow & stripy green of each. I hope your plants do well for you.

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  2. I have not seen round courgette. And interesting that you grow them in pots.

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  3. Thanks for the tips. I planted courgette zucchini for the second time. I hope I will be success. The first experience I've failed so thrive at the first, but the end rot destroying all of my plants,

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  4. I haven't grown Courgettes since our daughters left home. One of them was mad keen on them, but Jane and I are not. But, when I did grow them I always used to do what you have described - remove the faded flowers. Also a plant under stress will often not produce much fruit, so make sure they get lots of sun and lots of water, as well as an occasional feed.

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  5. I like the round ones We have Tondo Chiari di Nizza.They are good for stuffing.

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  6. We've grown Tondo di Piacenza with good results in the past. Picked our first courgettes this week.

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  7. I tried zucchini this year and the blooms were beautiful and many fell off. Then the ones that developed into fruit, rotted or fell off and while the zucchini was really little, they rotted! I didn't think they had too much rain, so I don't know hat happened. I might try again when I plant the Florida winter garden.

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