Zucchini: how to grow a good harvest

Contents

Growing zucchini
Planting of courgettes
Outdoor zucchini care
Harvesting zucchini
Rules for storing zucchini
Popular questions and answers

It would seem that there is nothing easier to grow zucchini – they grow beautifully even with minimal care. However, you can simplify your work even more, and the return on harvest will be much higher. You just need to know some tricks

But first, a couple of interesting facts.

Zucchini, as you know, is a member of the Pumpkin family. But he is not just a relative of a pumpkin – he is a pumpkin! If we look at their Latin names, we will see that the hard-barked pumpkin is Cucurbita pepo, and the squash is Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo. That is, it is just a subspecies of a pumpkin, usually a bush form – these plants do not have long lashes like a pumpkin (1).

By the way, only we call them zucchini. In the West, all non-standard in shape (not round) and color (not orange) pumpkins are called squash. They are divided into winter (in fact, these are pumpkins that can be stored for a long time) and summer (there are our zucchini, squash and crooknecks, which can be eaten unripe).

Zucchini, by the way, is also a zucchini – it belongs to the same subspecies of pumpkin, but is a cultural variety. In Latin, its name looks like this: Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo convar. giromontiina. And the main difference from zucchini is green, striped or yellow fruits and carved leaves (in ordinary zucchini they are usually whole). The first variety with this fruit color appeared in Italy – it was first described in 1901. And the word “zucchini” comes from “zucca” – “pumpkin”. That is, translated from Italian, zucchini is a small pumpkin.

Zucchini is native to Mexico. There they were also used for food, but not like ours, but only seeds. They came to Europe in the 200th century and initially zucchini was grown exclusively in botanical gardens – a curiosity! And only XNUMX years later, in the XVIII century, the Italians decided to taste the fruits. And they loved them. And they instilled their love in other peoples of Europe.

Growing zucchini

Zucchini is grown outdoors as an annual crop. They love an abundance of sun, so they need to be planted in open areas – in the shade, their productivity drops sharply and the risk of developing diseases increases.

The soil for zucchini (and not only for them – this rule works for all vegetable crops) should ideally be prepared in the fall: add 2 tbsp. spoons of double superphosphate and 1 tbsp. a spoonful of potassium sulfate per 1 sq. m, after which the site is dug onto the bayonet of a shovel.

It is best to grow zucchini in the place where green manure, nightshade crops (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers or eggplants), legumes (peas, beans, beans) grew last year. But after pumpkin crops (cucumbers, watermelons, melons, pumpkins, squash), zucchini cannot be planted – they have common diseases, spores of pathogenic fungi accumulate in the soil and accumulate more and more every year. After related crops, zucchini can be planted no earlier than after 4 years.

Planting of courgettes

Zucchini is an early ripening crop, therefore, in the middle lane, seeds can be sown immediately in open ground – after May 25 to a depth of 5 cm.

To get a crop earlier, you can grow zucchini through seedlings – in this case, the seeds are sown 25 – 30 days before planting in open ground, that is, April 25 – May 5. Accordingly, they must be relocated to the beds on May 25 – June 5.

You can sow zucchini for seedlings even earlier – April 10 – 15. In this case, they can be planted in open ground on May 10-15 – although this is a heat-loving crop, young plants withstand lower temperatures than other gourds (watermelons, pumpkins, squash). The optimum temperature for their growth is 20-25°C, but they can grow at 15°C. However, they do not tolerate frost at all, they die already at -0,5 ° C (2), so until the end of the month, the seedlings will have to be reliably covered with a non-woven fabric.

Since zucchini are massive plants, they require enhanced nutrition, which means. the area under each plant should be large. The optimal landing pattern is 70×70 cm (3).

Outdoor zucchini care

Zucchini is one of the most unpretentious vegetables. In general, they do not require special care. But there are nuances.

Watering. Plants easily tolerate drought because their roots penetrate to great depths and are able to extract water from the lower layers of the soil. However, the first 2 – 3 weeks after sowing or planting seedlings in the ground, while the roots are small, they need watering – once a week, 1 liters per bush. However, it is useful to water them further – until the end of July. In this case, the yield will be higher. But if they are not watered, the fruits will grow smaller, but more sugary (3).

Feeding. Zucchini love fertile soil, so in the spring it is useful to add to the beds (per 1 sq. M) (3):

humus or compost – 8 – 10 kg (1 bucket);
urea – 8 g (1 tablespoon);
double superphosphate – 6 g (1 teaspoon);
potassium sulfate – 12 g (2 teaspoons).

These fertilizers must be evenly scattered over the site and dig up the soil onto the bayonet of a shovel. And when sowing seeds or planting seedlings in the hole, it is useful to add another 1/2 bucket of humus or well-rotted compost.

These fertilizers are enough for the whole season – zucchini do not need additional top dressing in summer. However, you can not make them in the spring – the harvest, of course, will be less, but who suffered from a lack of zucchini? On the contrary, there are often too many of them.

Harvesting zucchini

In zucchini, immature fruits are used, they need to be harvested at the age of 7 – 12 days. Well, that is once a week. If you collect them less often, the harvest will be less. Frequent harvesting stimulates the formation of new ovaries.

I collect zucchini even more often – when the ovary reaches a length of 15 cm.

However, zucchini can also be grown for future use – when fully ripe, they become like pumpkins, their skin coarsens, the flesh becomes yellow or orange and acquires a pumpkin taste. Such fruits can be stored for quite a long time. For these purposes, 1 – 2 fruits should be left on each plant. They are harvested in September (3).

Rules for storing zucchini

They are stored in the same way as pumpkins – at room temperature. For example, they can be put away in the pantry or under the bed.

However, zucchini has one feature – in February, seeds begin to germinate right inside the fruit, and the flesh becomes bitter. So they must be eaten before that moment. But if you need to keep it longer, then at the end of January they need to be cut into pieces and sent to the freezer – at -18 ° C they can be stored without problems for 12 months without losing their nutritional properties (4).