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Tying up courgette plants?

Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
in Fruit & veg
This winter I read a blog about tying courgette plants up a cane like one would an indeterminate tomato, and pruning out leaves below the fruit because only leaves above the fruit feed into the courgettes?  Has anyone tried this method?  I usually have two plants a year, and they flop around and take up space.. and I often miss one or three among the leaves and end up finding a massive marrow to chuck over the fence to the neighbors chickens (with permission, of course).  As plans have changed, weddings and holidays canceled, I now have plenty of time to tie up my courgettes.  Cutting out lower leaves is appealing as well, to both increase courgette visibility and to help deal with squash bugs (a major pest to my Utah garden) by removing places to hide.
Utah, USA.

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    That will only work with trailing varieties.  The types I grow only have a stem about a foot long, so make sure you have a suitable variety before cutting any leaves off. ;)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    True.. I grow Black Beauty.. as that is the only seed I can get my hands on.  Someone a few years ago mentioned on this forum about a variety that trails around like a cucumber, maybe a heirloom type? They didn't have a name for it.  
    Utah, USA.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Black beauty only gets a couple of feet long at most for me, shooting star is a yellow climbing variety and black forest is a green climbing type.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    Thanks for the names @Skandi .. I'll look for seeds for those varieties next spring.  Gurneys was pretty picked over in February this year when I did my seed order. 
    Utah, USA.
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