Kitchen Garden Forum

How does it happen. Every day I check all my courgette plants. Every day I pick all the courgettes which are above about 5" long and I look under every leaf. Then it happens. Again. I have just found FOUR gigantic courgettes that think they're marrows. Where do they come from? They weren't there yesterday. If I didn't know that Seedling was in the USA I'd have suspected her of "planting" the damn things on me (I did this to her last year ). I just don't understand how I could possibly miss a courgette (or four) that had grown to such proportions that I struggled to carry it!

My grandson was in my greenhouse and said 'what's this, Granny?' (he's 2). It was a gherkin cucumber which had grown to the size of a small marrow and which had hidden itself under a large leaf. And what about the side shoots on tomatoes which suddenly appear, 2 ft long, and which definitely weren't there yesterday!
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Granny

Yes, it's infuriating isn't it? I can't stand big courgettes yet they always seem to creep up on me. I dread to think what will happen to my plants when we go on holiday this coming week-end. Before we leave I snip off every miniature fruit in sight to try and retard them but I still always return to an armful of giant marrows. And no doubt before long one of us here will be asking for some imaginative recipes for marrows as a result !!

If only potatoes would do it?!

I must say i did find a couple of whopper courgettes on my return.
I was just thinking, instead of cutting all the little courgettes off before one goes on holiday, i wonder if it would pay to leave one big one on each plant. I wonder if that would help to slow them down a little.
If it did work at least it would not be such a problem to use them up.

We've found that the best way of using the bigger ones up is to slice them thinly lengthways, sprinkle with olive oil and put them on a very hot griddle pan for a few minutes. But frankly I think any courgette longer than four inches is an abomination, and letting them grow big only takes up energy which the plant should be using to produce more little ones. I've just snipped all the embryo fruits off to try and retard things a little but new ones seem to grow so quickly that I'm sure we'll have a few marrows by the time we return from holiday.

I cut big courgettes into chunks and freeze them to make soup or ratatouille later on. Frozen tomatoes and courgettes make a perfectly good rat. You just have to cook them a bit longer.
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Granny

We went away for a week, leaving my daughter (27) with detailed instructions on the garden and animals. Everyhing was perfect except for the courgettes which she hadn't picked and wnich were enormous. Our neighbour's lad threw light on that when I offered him a large courgette. 'Courgette?' he asked 'Oh Becky thought they were marrows!' They looked like marrows after a week away!

Have just returned home from 2 weeks hols and now have so many "marrows" I'm overwhelmed, despite cutting off every single miniature fruit before we left. Will these jumbo courgettes store as well as marrows if the skin is left to harden off like other squashes?

Not usually. You may be lucky with a few, but generally they rot.

I saved half a dozen "marrows" last year and the longest lasted out until April.