corgette seedlings

[cherrystone]

I have raised 4 corgette seedling which now have 3 or 4 true leaves but they have 3 or 4 tiny flowers coming, should I take them off as the plants are quite small and they plant should be putting everything into just growing?

[alan refail]

Hi Cherrystone

A warm welcome to the forum

If your courgettes are putting on flowers I think that shows that they are under stress. When did you sow them and what size of pots are they in?Courgettes will try to flower at a small size if they become pot-bound. The only solution is to chuck them and start again. Here in normally mild north-west Wales it is just now beginning to warm up and I am poised to sow my courgettes, cucumbers and squashes tomorrow. All of these grow rapidly and I can only suggest that you are a good deal too early for central Scotland. Following advice elsewhere on the forum, I made a second sowing of courgettes on 19th June last year and got a brilliant second crop.

[cherrystone]

Thanks for that, I start again. I have got them under a blue/green light inside temp about 17/20c, they germinated really quickly. I potted them on into 3"pots no roots are showing at the bottom of the pots.

[Johnboy]

Hi Cherrystone,
I for one will not even look at the Courgette seed packet for at least another two or maybe three weeks. Most squashes, if raise too soon will, put on masses of top growth and not enough root so that when planted out they have a tendency to take a massive check in their growth.
The whole idea of growing in pots, and the like, is to try and prevent this.
It should go like this; Sow seed, pot on when large enough to handle and when the roots are in evidence at base of pot, plant out in permanent position without any holdups.
I would consider that for Central Scotland you are very previous with your sowing and would think that it would be best to start again as there is masses of time left in the sowing slot.
JB.

[cherrystone]

I realise now that this is where I have probably been going wrong in the past. As we have such a short growing period I tend to panic and start too soon and I get very pale leaves and lots of male flowers and it seems the summer is over before I get the female flowers. I shall sow a couple now and put them in the polytunnel but wait a couple of weeks to sow the outdoor ones. I have invested in grafted butternut squash this year in the hope of getting even one squash as up to now they have set too late to do anything despite the amount of manure applied in the autumn.

[Johnboy]

Hi Cherrystone,
We get a short growing season here as frosts are still about at the beginning of June and frosts are back in the last week of August generally.
The thing is that if you can manage to time your sowing to produce a plant for the first available time when frosts will have ceased. Even if you are just a little previous you can hold fire on planting-out for about a week but really no longer.
JB.

[Geoff]

I sow all my Gourds, Squashes, Pumpkins and Courgettes about end of first week in May to plant outside first week in June. I think you are setting yourself up for a disappointing task trying to grow Butternut Squash (though I have no experience of grafted ones) as I find that each year I try growing them in the cold greenhouse I get very little return for the effort and space used. I find outdoor Winter Squashes like Crown Prince or Queensland Blue are much more rewarding.

[cherrystone]

I shall look out for those squashes, do you think they would grow up here outside as I dont have any room in the polytunnel? And when would you sow the squashes, same as the corgettes?

[Geoff]

Not much knowledge of your climate, I'm at 600' but have light soil and a kind aspect so do better than perhaps I should but I guess you would be OK. If you grow Courgettes outside you will be OK, I sow and treat them exactly the same

[cherrystone]

I am at 130m but when the wind blows I catch it as we are on a hill, I think that this year I am going to surround my beds with individual wind breaks. The last few lousy summers havent helped, and it doesnt look like improving as I look out onto the leaden sky and lucky if we will get into double figures today! Only consolation is the beautiful surroundings! I shall try you squash idea and see if I can find the seeds.

[Geoff]

Should have said the bed for these is surrounded by metre high windbreak inside my veg area which is surrounded by 2 metre fence/windbreak. Having built this I wondered how walled gardens worked because it was still windy inside so I protect individual beds as well, full season protection for the Brassicas and Squashes. Getting the plants established is the hardest part as they spin in the wind.

[cherrystone]

What do you use for a windbreak? I have some old net curtains that I thought to put round as I have yards and yards someone gave me. I thought originally to use it over my carrots and brassicas to keep off the pest. Or do you use polythene? My garden is windy when it blows but not constantly if you see what I mean!

[Geoff]

The fence is wooden boards at the bottom with a metre of plastic netting above. The black version of this I think.
http://www.lbsgardenwarehouse.co.uk/pro ... e=1&jump=0
The fruit cage in the background is made of the same stuff for the lower half and 25mm chicken wire above.
The netting round beds is windbreak / shade netting but I can't remember if it is 40% or 50%, I've had it a few years.
http://www.lbsgardenwarehouse.co.uk/pro ... e=1&jump=0
The piece that is up is for the Brassicas. I've just finished digging the Squash bed and another piece of the net will go round that when I have broken it down ready for planting.
The other things you can see in the photo are the Comfrey bed in the right foreground, corrugated cloche of Mangetout Peas on the left next to a salad cold frame, behind them are the just uncovered First Early Potatoes with the fleece protected Sweet Peas behind them, further away is the Carrot Cage and corrugated cloches of Parsnips and Beetroot.

IMG_2151_R.jpg (122.71 KiB) Viewed 5749 times

[cherrystone]

wow!

[cherrystone]

Geoff, I have been trying to locate your suggestions of Queenland Blue and Crown Prince to no avail! Can you point me in the right direction? I am all questions today but looking at your beautiful 'potager' tell me how you weed with all the netting around the individual plots. I put netting around my plots to keep the chooks off but I found it impossible to weed properly, so in the end took it down and the chooks stay in their run apart from the winter.