Courgette and wind question.

[MikA]

Another newbie question. I planted a courgette in the ground the other day at the depth it was in the pot. (It was too big for my small cold frame to cover).it now has a 2.5' stem and this morning when I've removed it's overnight fleece protector, The gusty wind is really shaking it around.
Do I need to stake it a bit, protect from the wind or will it survive ok?

[John]

Hello MikA
Very breezy here to day as well. I think to be on the safe side I would drape some bird netting or similar over the plant, firmly weighted at the edges, to stop it being buffeted around too much. Pity to lose it at this stage.

John

[Geoff]

Wind destroys Courgettes very easily, they seem to spin round and break off. My plot is surrounded by a wind break fence and the "triffids" bed always gets an additional wind break net all round it but I still get some damage. I stake them so they lie flattish but can't spin. I wouldn't dream of planting out any of this family until June so hopefully this cold wind will have gone by then. Look out for the frost later this week.

[MikA]

Thanks a lot folks,

I've just been out and re-covered it with its fleece coat tight.

I think We're probably suffering from the perennial complaint of first timers - overoptimism. Unfortunately I had to move the courgette out of my little coldframe as it was too big and there are too many of the wife's flowers for a friend's plant sale. Fortunately I have kept a spare in the greenhouse and just in case there are 2 more seedlings just coming of a different variety (a yellow one).

MikA

[Primrose]

I'm holding off planting out my courgettes for a while because the nights can still be pretty cold. However, when they get too big for their pots I'll probably plant them out and cover them over with some of these jumbo water-cooler indivdual cloches with the bottoms cut off, which hopefully will protect them against both wind and cold until the temperature warms up a little.

I've planted out some celeriac seedlings today and am hoping that the wind won't dehydrate them too much.

[Monika]

I use old fleece, that is, too "holey" for use against carrot root fly, and put it round plants when it's very windy: just three or four short bamboo canes and then put the fleece round, not over. In fact, when I plant a long row of sweet peas (which I do about the start sdof april every year), I surround them with a "shelter fleece" and that really helps to settle them until the weather warms up.

So, MikA, if you don't want to cover the whole plant, just put a shelter round it. Then it doesn't matter if you cannot get it off during the day.