This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Courgette issues!
slfrain
Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hello,
I'm growing courgettes for the first time this year and I bought a variety called 'ambassador'. They have been growing really well but they are yellow. When I have read up on the ambassador variety they are the usual green colour, but mine are all bright yellow and the largest one is now over 12 inches long with only the very bottom tinged with green.
Is this normal? I thought courgettes were meant to be picked much smaller than that, but if it's meant to be green shouldn't it ripen on the plant? I'm wondering if the label was wrong and i actually have a varity of yellow courgette but i don't know how i would be able to tell!
Any help would be much appreciated - I'm very new to this!
0
Posts
It's not unknown for seed suppliers to get their seeds mixed up and I suspect that is the case here. You don't normally let courgettes ripen - the idea is to pick them when they are the size you want (in my opinion, the smaller they are picked, the tastier they are.) If you leave them on the plant too long they can become huge in some varieties - basically marrows!) If you leave them long enough to form seeds inside, the plant will often stop producing more flowers and fruit.
I usually grow yellow courgettes ... I prefer the flavour ...pick at the normal size and enjoy!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks BobTheGardener! That does make sense. In that case I'd better get picking!
Ive grown Marrow plants from seeds, not courgettes, can I pick those at the courgette stage or are they not the same thing?
They are the same thing, well close enough just pick them young and you won't notice much (if any) difference.
Last year I had oine plant I thought wasn't producing anything, I was standing over it complaining to a pair of friends, then I moved a leaf and found a 7kg and a 5kg "courgette" hiding, after removing them it started producing wonderfully right up untill the first frosts, much longer than the other plants who had produced all summer managed.
Silfrain, why haven't you picked the courgettes that are big enough for the kitchen. They don't mature and stop growing. They just keep on getting bigger. Pick them before they get out of hand.
And of course, the more you pick the more fruit the plant will produce
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.