Scared for my courguettes

Update: courgettes are doing well, I must get 3-4 large ones each weekend to feast upon!

What's worrying me is the big main stalk they are all growing off is travelling one way, and that's out of the grow bag. I'm thinking of putting something beneath it once the fruits are growing out off the bag rather than them dragging on the floor.

Thoughts?

 

Mine are just growing on the ground, just give them a quick wash and they are alright.

 

I've put some ground control fabric under mine cos there just happened to be a bit spare in the shed. It was mainly to suppress weeds and cos it makes me look professional (mine are on the soil in open ground)
As Pete says it isn't essential particularly if the growbag is on the patio or similar.

 

Squashes grow better planted through Mypex or similar ground cover, they like their roots warm. I've being growing them that way for about 20 years, get better crops and don't need to weed amongst them.

The only exception is trailing Marrows and Pumpkins grown for size where the main stem and side stems are all buried in shallow grooves so they produce extra roots at each leaf joint.

I hand pollinate all the female flowers every morning. If seed saving I bag/tie flowers the evening before and after pollination (using pollen from another plant of the same variety if possible).

My squash patch with bush custard squash and courgetes with climbing baby spaghetti squash and outdoor cucumbers growing up vertical mesh around the perimeter of a sheltered south facing area.



Before the plants get much bigger I'll push some short lengths of bamboo cane through the holes in Mypex and slide some inverted 2L drinks bottles with their bottoms cut of down them to make watering more accurate.

P.S. That was a bramble patch last year, which extended right into a dilapidated polytunnel that I have renovated.

 

Mine are not bush ones and are in the process of taking over where the onions are so trying to divert the long growths with the odd stick here and there, but they do have a mind of their own.

 

Yes don't they go! I'm trying crown prince squash this year and the plants are massive.

 

Wow that all looks amazing! This is my first year gardening so I hope to one day have a patch as fine as yours!

 

Hi all!

I've noticed my plants are producing a lot of female flowers and not many males at all. Is there anything to be done about this?

I'm finding more and more courgettes rotting but I can't find a male flower to pollinate them with!

 

I've only really found melon to be the difficult one regarding getting female flowers early on in the season.
The others of the family which I have tried seem to be more accommodating regarding having female flowers early.
I just don't think we have the heat and light levels they need early or late in the season.

I should add pumpkin to that as well.

 

Do you have any other squashes with male flowers you can use, such as marrows, pumpkins, butternuts, etc. (Not cucumbers or melons).

 

Unfortunately no, this is my first year gardening and I have a 400ltr grow bag. Just the courgettes!

I will keep an eye out for the next male flower and hand pollinate.

 

It works, only too well sometimes when using seed from a marow that's been open pollinated because you've been away that day, or not noticed the female flower was going to open the folowing morning, and only finding it's crossed after a plant grown using the seeds crops the following summer. Both male and female flowers need tying or bagging the evening before, and the female tying/bagging after pollination.

Cucumbers and Melons are too unrelated to squashes to pollinate, but I think I've read that it's possible in a laboratory, using GM techniques they could probably even cross them with a fish.

 

Courgette, 'Parthenon', F1 Hybrid Seeds £2.99 from Chiltern Seeds - Chiltern Seeds Secure Online Seed Catalogue and Shop


6 Seeds for £2.99 and being F1 most likely no good for seed saving, but maybe a good for those who don't get up at 5:30 every morning to get ready and walk 1/8 of a mile to their plot to pollinate their courgettes. For me it would be an outlay of £12 to 18 and I'd still have to make that trip every day to pollinate my other squashes.