Courgettes not coming up ....

EC12345

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help. I normally have brilliant courgettes every year but this year I planted them exactly the same way as normal but only two have come up. I planted them over month ago. In the past they have all come up at the same time. I've had a dig around today and can find no shoots or anything. The seeds seem to have vanished. MAybe it was the bad weather - I just don't know.

Does anyone know what has happened or has this happend to anyone? I really don't thinks anything is eating them because in my other veg patch my carrotts, leaks, parsnips and spring onions are coming up brilliantly.

Thank you for your help.

Please feel free to move this or merge this ....

EC:)

McKneff

Dont know about your problem, sorry, but a friend has just given me two courgettes in pots, Im not going to see her for a while but what do i with them,
leave them in the pots, plant them in the garden, water them how often.
Sorry Ive never grown them before.

Yorkie1

To OP:

Did you sow these outdoors or inside in warmth? It's been such a long cold spring that it has affected plants in ways not previously encountered.

If there's no sign of seeds then it sounds as though you're not going to be lucky with those plants - could either be they've rotted off or, if outdoors, frosted or eaten by mice or something else.

I'd replant if you need more than two courgette plants.

To McKneff:

Courgettes are not frost hardy and we're due some cool night time temperatures again next week. I'd keep them in the pots for the next week at least. Assuming they're not still too small, I'd put them outdoors during the day and bring them indoors at night. Do that for at least a week or two - it's called hardening them off i.e. acclimatising them.

You can grow them in pots but tbh they're far happier in the ground.

Allow 1m between the plants, if you've got some well rotted manure, or compost, or chicken pellets, bung that in the ground just before planting. Dig a hole and plant the plant into it, putting them on a slight mound so that they don't sit in a depression. However, I do then make a raised edge about 18" around the stem to retain water below the mound for watering into.

They are quite hungry and will need quite a bit of water so keep an eye on them.

And enjoy all the veg in due course (chocolate courgette cake's a particular favourite of mine!)

McKneff

To McKneff:

Courgettes are not frost hardy and we're due some cool night time temperatures again next week. I'd keep them in the pots for the next week at least. Assuming they're not still too small, I'd put them outdoors during the day and bring them indoors at night. Do that for at least a week or two - it's called hardening them off i.e. acclimatising them.

You can grow them in pots but tbh they're far happier in the ground.

Allow 1m between the plants, if you've got some well rotted manure, or compost, or chicken pellets, bung that in the ground just before planting. Dig a hole and plant the plant into it, putting them on a slight mound so that they don't sit in a depression. However, I do then make a raised edge about 18" around the stem to retain water below the mound for watering into.

They are quite hungry and will need quite a bit of water so keep an eye on them.

And enjoy all the veg in due course (chocolate courgette cake's a particular favourite of mine!)

Wow, thanks Yorkie, will do,

Never heard of Chocolate courgette cake, and another question -

How do you grow Chocolates courgettes please.:D

MissMoneypenny

I grow my courgettes in 99p B&Q buckets. That way I can move them into the greenouse if it gets cold overnight.:D Because courgettes like a lot of water, I drill holes round the side of the buckets, about an inch up from the bucket base. Then I put some perlite in the base of the bucket, up to the top of the drilled holes. Then I top up with compost. You can put the seed straight into the bucket, but make sure to lay the seed on its side to stop rot.

I meant to put some compost in the base of the buckets this year, but an old gardener told me not to change the way I grow them if I consistently get good crops, so I didn't use manure. I feed them a lot with tomato food one they start producing courgettes.

peter_the_piper

Courgettes should really be started in the warm. The extended cold this winter has left the ground really cold and it will take some time to warm up.Its only in the last week that the night temps have been warm enough to allow small courgette plants to survive. Stick a few more seeds in, there's plenty of time.

Bitsy_Beans

I always germinate my courgettes inside and then plant out after last frosts.
Please note than when planting out made sure you heel them in REALLY well as they need the ground to be very firm in order to form a good root base. I lost a couple last year because I didn't heel them in well enough.

Hmmmmm chocolate courgettes......not so sure about that

Pipkin

I had one of those 99p windowsil grow your own herb pots from Asda, but it was grow your own courgettes.

I planted the seeds, watered, waited and I was amazed yesterday (within about 3 days) that when I looked that there were loads of little plants germinated - I say little but the leaves are huge..and even within a day they have grown massively.

So, it must be the warmth of indoors that has done it, why not try sowing some in a wee pot indoors, then you can transplant them outside later?

stilernin

If you prefer to sow seeds outside, and many do if time is at a premium, you can warm the soil up first.

Prepare the ground and then peg down thick clear polythene over the site for a couple of weeks before you are going to sow the seeds; this will warm up the soil. Remove the polythene, sow the seeds and then cover with cut down poly bottles. As the seedlings emerge you can choose your days to remove the bottles to begin to harden them off; eventually removing the bottles completely.

The bottles also keep slugs, snails and birds off, and keeps the soil moist as the water evaporates and condenses on the inside of the bottles.

foxgloves

I had exactly the same problem. Am an experienced gardener & have grown courgettes every year since way back when. Started them off in April in unheated greenhouse. Only one germinated. I investigated & found all the other seeds had rotted. I think the very cold nights probably didn't help. Luckily there were some courgette seeds with the free pack from the BBC, so I put some more in and those have come up. In fact, they have caught up brilliantly now it's so much warmer and the first one isn't that much bigger. I should quickly get some more started off now.

heynonnynonny

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

I always germinate my courgettes inside and then plant out after last frosts.
Please note than when planting out made sure you heel them in REALLY well as they need the ground to be very firm in order to form a good root base. I lost a couple last year because I didn't heel them in well enough.

Hmmmmm chocolate courgettes......not so sure about that

I did this following your advice on another thread where I complained about my floppy courgette plants, they are a lot better now and doing well, I piled quite a bit more compost around the base and they seem to have stopped flopping over