On Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:11:30 +0100, David Hill wrote:

On 16/06/2013 03:03, Christina Websell wrote:
"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 13/06/2013 20:48, David.WE.Roberts wrote:
Bought a couple of pots of courgette seedlings from Lidl.

When I came to plant them out, one pot had two courgette plants
closely intertwined, the other had three.
I know because I could see the seed leaves.

Now another year, if it was earlier in the season and I had a bit
more time I would have broken up the root ball and teased the plants
apart in the hope of getting 2 or 3 for 1.

Standard planting instructions say to plant two seed together then
pinch out the weaker one after germination.

Here, they look to be so closely intertwined that separating them
could set them back a few weeks.
Pinching one or two out didn't seem a good idea as they were so well
developed, plus having rotting dead plants mixed in with live ones
might not be the best idea.

So I have just planted them up in their friendship group.

Am I likely to get a decent yield from a group of plants?

Cheers

Dave R

Plant them as they are and just feed well and keep them well watered
if it turns dry.
In nature they would grow in clumps.

Totally disagree. Courgettes need grow alone to fruit well


Why?


If I get the time (and can be arsed) I might conduct an experiment by
splitting one of the clusters and seeing how the individual plants do.

Then again if I kill all the plants by splitting them then I am worse off
that if I leave them alone. Should I split the 2 or the 3?

I can see both sides - in nature all that is required is to set enough
seed to perpetuate the species whilst in cultivation the aim is to
maximise individual fruit.

An example, for instance, is the culture of tomatoes where they are
artificially managed to restrict growth of side shoots and stopped to
limit the number of trusses.

In nature they would just go wild, crop more but with potentially smaller
fruit.

Then again I have let bush cherry tomatoes in pots run wild and in a good
summer you get far more fruit than a managed plant and with a good autumn
(and no blight) they can go on cropping into November.

It seems unnatural to me to see a tomato plant in a green house in August
which has been stopped, had the required 8 trusses, had the lower leaves
stripped, and is now at the end of cropping when there could be loads more
fruit produced before the first frost.

But I digress :-)

If enough food is supplied so that the courgettes aren't competing for a
scarce resource I see no reason why all two/three plants should not
flourish.

Potentially there should be more flowers so perhaps more fruit but smaller
could be a better result.

The jury is out.

Cheers

Dave R