"John Savage" wrote in message
...
terryc writes:
Our last attempt produced nice big plants, lots of flowers and no fruit
despite hand pollination, so might have been wrong variety.

Hence my question.

Zucchinis come in blackjack (dark green), greyzinni (pale grey/green),
and golden. Not speaking specifically for Sydney, but the golden ones
are a waste of time trying to grow. I think the blackjacks should
suit everywhere. The greys are likely to be almost as disappointing
as the golden. You just can't go wrong planting the blackjacks, and
they are the best tasting, to boot. :-)


The gold ones do quite well here and have the advantage of being easy to find
under the vine so you don't have as many escapees that grow into giant zucche.

I guess you mean that you got lots of male flowers, and few female
flowers?

As for pollination--YOU DON'T NEED POLLINATION. NONE! NADA! NIL!
That's the beauty of growing zucchinis.


I disagree.

You can pick each fruit the day after its flower opens. The flower
will still be on the end of it, break it off. The fruit are at
their mouth-watering tastiest when this small size, and it is
immaterial whether or not the flower has been visited by a bee.

True but how big are they at that size 2-3 cm? It is a waste to me to cut them
so small.

Only if you want the fruit to grow to a large size do the flowers
need to be pollinated, and with large zucchinis being as tasteless
as the old marrows of yore, I can't see why anyone would want this
(unless you are growing them to feed to guinea pigs).


I find the flavour is quite good until they are about 10-12 cm long. The 20cm
size are poor and the 40cm plus zucca is cattle fodder.

Bear in mind that by picking all the fruit when it's still small
you are encouraging the plant to keep on producing more. Lots more.


True. But you also encourage the vine to run further.

Len gave you good advice. Hill the areas where you plant them so
they drain well. Never water the leaves, they succumb to mildew
soon enough as it is, without encouraging it! Don't plant them
where they'll miss out on morning sun; I think they need their
morning sun.

Good advice, fungus is the most likely problem in the humidity of a Sydney
summer.


Plant them as seeds, you'll have no success transplanting.


This is what the books say but it all depends on how you do it. They do
resent their roots being disturbed so tray seedlings are going to fare poorly
as they are too shallow and the roots get tangled together. However if you
put them into the tapered square-section plastic tubes used for nursery tube
stock you can transplant very successfully. The whole plug of soil and roots
comes out in one bit and can be planted out without disturbing the roots at
all.

For all my curcurbits I put one seed per tube and start them under cover in
late winter (2 weeks ago) in about 2-3 more weeks they will be about 8-15 cm
up and ready to transplant after the last frost. I do more tubes than I need
so that if some seeds don't germinate or the seedling is weak I have enough
good ones. This gives me a month head start on planting directly in the
ground.

BTW, you do know that you can eat the flowers, too.
--

Recipes in many Mediterranean cookbooks.

David

On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:36:52 +0000, John Savage wrote:

terryc writes:
Our last attempt produced nice big plants, lots of flowers and no fruit
despite hand pollination, so might have been wrong variety.

Hence my question.


I guess you mean that you got lots of male flowers, and few female
flowers?

Well, itwas a bush plant about 1.5 metres in diameter of the
hemisphere. The flowers were definitely oftwo different sexes. the
outer ones were male and the inner ones female.

As for pollination--YOU DON'T NEED POLLINATION. NONE! NADA! NIL! That's
the beauty of growing zucchinis.

well, we did get a couple, but 99% died/went off very quickly.

is this a pH, trace element, ntirent problem?


You can pick each fruit the day after its flower opens.

Naah, there was just a flower,no fruit as such.
Sorry, can not remember the variety.



We mounded them by using a 30" pot with no bottom, which we were told was
doable, but we are not doing again as the plant was so top heavy that the
plastic pot(sand bottom) jst toppled over.


Todays task is to find the square pots to try David seed raising trick

"David Hare-Scott" writes:
"John Savage" wrote in message
m...
The gold ones do quite well here and have the advantage of being easy to find
under the vine so you don't have as many escapees that grow into giant zucche.

Picked before their bright yellow flower turns brown, the blackjacks are easy
to find, too. The blackjacks have it all over the others for flavour which is
the reason most grow their own rather than buy from the supermarket.

I guess you mean that you got lots of male flowers, and few female
flowers?

As for pollination--YOU DON'T NEED POLLINATION. NONE! NADA! NIL!
That's the beauty of growing zucchinis.


I disagree.

Don't be disagreeable.

You can pick each fruit the day after its flower opens. The flower
will still be on the end of it, break it off. The fruit are at
their mouth-watering tastiest when this small size, and it is
immaterial whether or not the flower has been visited by a bee.

True but how big are they at that size 2-3 cm? It is a waste to me to cut them
so small.

You say your fruit are only 2-3 cm at flowering?? Then there is something
seriously wrong, most likely it *is* transplant shock. They never recover.
A healthy zucc is typically around 9 to 11 cm long on the morning the flower
opens, and then it doubles in weight within 36 hours by which time the flower
has folded.

Only if you want the fruit to grow to a large size do the flowers
need to be pollinated, and with large zucchinis being as tasteless
as the old marrows of yore, I can't see why anyone would want this
(unless you are growing them to feed to guinea pigs).

This is what the books say but it all depends on how you do it. They do
resent their roots being disturbed so tray seedlings are going to fare poorly
as they are too shallow and the roots get tangled together. However if you
put them into the tapered square-section plastic tubes used for nursery tube

Wny would you bother? It's not going to give a head start. When planted
directly where they are to grow the seeds come up in less than a week and
escape the transplant setback.

I have seen a garden where plastic drink bottles with the base removed were
used as mini-glasshouses during winter. I think you'd need to remove them
by mid-morning should the day be warm and sunny, but it's a possibility for
those in bleak climates.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

terryc writes:
Well, itwas a bush plant about 1.5 metres in diameter of the

Hard to say without seeing it. On a healthy plant, a single leaf
can almost reach 1 metre!

is this a pH, trace element, ntirent problem?

I have no idea. But if other vegetables grow okay, I'd think it
should be right for zucchinis. Plenty of compost, and regular
watering should do it. They need morning sun and lots of it.
Half a handful of complete fertiliser wouldn't hurt if you are
gardening in poor soil.

You can pick each fruit the day after its flower opens.

Naah, there was just a flower,no fruit as such.

You can't have one without the other! The male flowers are on the
end of a stalk. The female flowers sit directly on the end of the
baby fruit--its yellow petals are joined right onto the fruit, there
is no female flower stalk at all. So if you have female flowers you
also have the young fruit, typically 9 cm. in length as the flower
opens. Some people even pick them *before* the flower opens! But if
you wait until the flower is wide open, you can eat both fruit and
flower, and you don't need any bees.

Another curcubit you can grow without bees is the tiny squash. The
green coloured ones are best for taste, and you pick them while the
flower is open, or the morning after if you want a bigger fruit.

Sorry, can not remember the variety.

The hybrid "blackjacks" (AKA "black beauty") are on their own. They
have taste and vigour and I doubt that any heritage variety of marrow
could come near.

Todays task is to find the square pots to try David seed raising trick

As soon as the danger of frosts is over plant directly into hilled
soil. Cover with mulch, and the seeds will be up in 4 to 6 days and
remain stronger than transplanted seedlings ever can be.

Seed raising ideas are good for getting an early start with tomatoes
though because they take so many weeks to reach transplantable size.

BTW, should you decide to grow cucumbers, be prepared to pollinate by
hand. It's a very painstaking daily task. Even where there are a few
bees around, the tiny cucumber flowers just don't seem to beckon.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)