When to pick courgettes – zucchini

Courgettes are fantastic to grow in the garden and allotment. In other countries, the courgette is also called Zucchini. Courgette plants can give out amazing produce and harvests. Knowing when to pick courgettes is the main important thing to know. Picking them at the right time is a key factor in growing courgettes. You can have small courgettes one day and the next day you may go to the allotment they may have doubled in size. Here in this article, we will share our gardening tips and advice on when to pick courgettes or zucchini as they are called in other countries.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

About Courgettes – Zucchini

Did you know courgette (zucchini) is actually from the same family as melon, cucumber, squash, gourds and pumkins. The only difference is with Courgettes is that they do not grow on a vine like pumkins, cucumbers and melons. Courgettes grow on a bush.

Courgettes have the same sort of flowers as squash and pumpkins so when you are planting the seeds make sure you label everything up well as they plants all look the same when they are growing. You will only know what it is if one starts spreading, which will be the pumpkin plant.

Did you know the the courgette dates back to at least 5000bc where it was grown in South America. It was then discovered later on by explorers from Europe and brought to other countries.

Courgette plants have male and female flowers on the plant that means it is easy for it to pollinate so you only need one plant. The bees will jump from flower to flower pollinating them. You can also hand pollinate them yourself.

If you pick the courgettes – Zucchini when they are small they will keep growing more for you to pick. 2 or three plants will certainly be ample for you to grow enough for the whole family and even to give some away.

How and when to pick and harvest courgettes

When you are picking courgettes and harvesting them ideally you want to be picking them when they are still small, people say they start too loose there taste as they get bigger. The size you want to be picking your courgettes at are around 8 inches. The more you pick them the more they will grow. If you happen to be getting too many courgettes to be keeping up with leave some on the plant and this will slow down production of them.

When you are picking your courgettes, slice them off by the stem with a sharp knife, obviously let an adult cut the courgettes off the plants. Courgettes are very crafty. You may think you have picked them all but you will often find some hiding away under the leaves. The courgette leaves can be prickly so be careful when picking them.

How to store courgettes

Once you have picked your courgettes you will want to then store them. Do not wash them till you need them. Store them in a plastic bag up to one week. The other option is to shred the courgette and freeze them until you actually need them. Put them in a freezer bag and seal. Store them until you need them. You can store them for up to 3 months within the freezer. Write the date on the freezer bag so you know when you put them in.

Purchase Courgette Seeds

If you are wanting to grow courgette seeds you can click the Amazon link below where you can purchase seeds directly from Amazon

Find out all about growing courgettes from seeds here.