Growing courgette help please

fimonkey

Hi All,

For the first time ever I'm growing on 2 courgette plants I bought from the garden centre. Having never grown them before I don't know what to expect and I can't find this on the internet.,,,,

I put the plants in 12"by12" deep pots with growing compost, the plants are now about 12" tall and have enormous leaves, little courgettes off the main stem are appearing and one is even in flower - what a lovely flower they have...

1. I know I can eat this flower, when do I pick it and how do I eat it? (chop it up and add it raw to salads? - fry it? etc)

2. How long after the flower do I pick the courgette?

3. What are these weird "tendrily" curly things (like bindweed without the leaves) that are coming off the main stem? - Do I do anything with them?

Thanks in advance for your help

startingagain_2

fimonkey wrote: »

1. I know I can eat this flower, when do I pick it and how do I eat it? (chop it up and add it raw to salads? - fry it? etc) - pick it when it is large enough to handle, pick out the stamen, wipe it, stuff it with ricotta cheese mixed with basil (stuffing is optional), dip into tempura style batter and deep fry for a couple of minutes

2. How long after the flower do I pick the courgette?- whenever it is big enough for you to want to use

3. What are these weird "tendrily" curly things (like bindweed without the leaves) that are coming off the main stem? - Do I do anything with them? - the tendrils are the plants way of climbing/extending...you could make a wigwam of strong sticks in your pot and allow the courgette to climb or just leave them to wander...!

Hope this helps!!

LuckyBiscuit

You might want to nip over to the greenfingered thread, loads of great advice there too.....

foxgloves

AND if you let one of your very last courgettes get as big as a marrow, you'll be able to make some marrow & ginger jam (very much nicer than it sounds!) to give as Christmas presents.

Primrose

Courgette plants are very greedy feeders so once they start producing fruit, make sure you give them a weekly liquid feed. I sprinkle chicken manure pellets around mine in the vegetable patch, but some liquid Tomorite or similar tomato feed will probably serve equally well. Pick your fruit when they're no longer than 4 - 5 inches long to enjoy them at their best. When very small the don't need to be cooked - you can eat them raw chopped up in salads. The more regularly you pick them, the more you encourage them to keep fruiting.

Penelope_Penguin

When you've had enough courgettes, you can let the last ones grow into big marrows I'll move this to Greenfingered for you.

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