Fruit vegetables
Courgette
Cucurbita pepo
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Start indoorsmid April – early May
Sow outdoorsmid May – early June
Plantingmid May – early June
Harvestearly July – early October
Practical tip
Two plants feed most households. Pick every couple of days — one you miss turns into a club in no time.
Origin & history
Courgettes belong to the species Cucurbita pepo, just like oil-seed pumpkin, patty pan and most ornamental gourds; the species was domesticated in Central America millennia ago and reached Europe after 1492. The elongated courgette form itself, however, is an Italian breeding development of the late 19th century — the name is the diminutive of zucca, pumpkin. In German gardens it only became really widespread in the 1970s and 1980s.
Varieties
Bush courgettes stay put as a compact clump, while climbing varieties can be trained up a frame and save bed space. Yellow varieties have one thoroughly practical advantage: their fruit is far harder to miss among the leaves. Only save your own seed if no other Cucurbita pepo are flowering nearby — courgettes cross with ornamental gourds, and the offspring can carry bitter fruit that does not belong on the plate.
Care
Courgettes are hungry feeders: plenty of compost in the planting hole and regular feeding from the first fruit onward. Water thoroughly at the base and never into the crown, or the base of the stem rots; a straw mulch keeps moisture in the soil and the fruit clean. Cut away the oldest leaves near the ground as the summer goes on — the foliage dries faster and you can actually find the fruit again.
What can go wrong
When the first small fruits turn yellow at the flower end and rot, they were not pollinated: early in the season often only male flowers open, and in cool, wet weather barely an insect flies. You can help by hand in the morning with a male flower — the one on the thin stalk. Powdery mildew from August is almost part of the deal and usually costs only the last weeks of the crop; generous spacing, watering at the base and taking off the worst leaves is answer enough. Young plants are popular with slugs — plant out large and well hardened off, and collect them in the evening for the first few weeks.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Courgettes are ready at 15 to 20 cm, while the skin still shines and can be dented with a thumbnail. Cut them off with a knife and a bit of stalk; torn fruit keeps less well. They stay fresh for one to two weeks in the vegetable drawer — frozen raw they go mushy, but grated and squeezed out they are fine for cakes and fritters. You can pick the male flowers without losing any of the crop — though leave a few for pollination in the cool early weeks.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.