GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

29-07-2010, 11:46 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote:
The ridiculous thing is that I can grow squashes - including Little
Gem, which is a Cucurbita pepo, just like courgettes. But every
time I grow courgettes outside, I get 2-3 and they they get mosaic
virus so badly they have to be destroyed. This was an attempt to
grow them inside, to avoid that.

I don't think I've ever ha mosaic virus. I've heard of it, but I'm not even
sure I'd recognise it if I saw it.

What courgettes are you growing? My success has always come from green bush
type, although this year I have loads coming on the 'one ball' (yellow
spherical-ish fruit), and I have one organic Dundoo that is doing well,
although germination on everything but the bush and oneball was ... well,
mostly miss-and-miss, it seems.
I think I've now /finally/ got rid of all of my old courgette seed, so can
invest in a new packet of fresh ones for next year.

With potatoes, it is spraing and both types of eelworm :-(

Ah, now you can do something about that by going for the more resistant
ones! We have been goig to the Hampshire potato day for the last few years
(an awful long trip, but it's a nice day out) and doing some research (and
also some on-the-spot extra purchases! - my scarlet-flowered broad beans
came from there), we end up with a whole host of different types, with
different levels of resistance to various things.

Couple of years ago they had some 'new, please trial them for us' potatoes,
where one plant was totally riddled with eelworm when we dug it up! But our
most common problems on the allotment are blight and slugs.