Week 52+24 - Bed EX1

Week 52+21 - Bed EX1

Week 52+5 - Bed EX1

Much of the grass that was piled on this bed has taken root and is growing well. This makeshift cover crop and will be adding fertility to the bed when dug in later in the spring.

Week 47 - Bed EX1

The plant on this bed were cleared a few weeks ago and the grass that had grown around the edges was dug up and piled on top. The two big stones were dug out of the adjacent bed EX2 when it was double dug. There is a lot of stones in this field (most of them much smaller than these) that form a dense layer about 25-30 below the surface.

Week 40 - Bed EX1

The courgette plants had no chance of surviving the two nights of frost earlier in the week.

All of the larger leaves have shriveled and dried ...

... though there is still some young growth unaffected. We were able to harvest a few courgettes that were not damaged by the frost, but decided to pull up the plants.

When removing one of the plants we carefully dug up one of the roots as far as we could, and managed to trace it over 120cm horizontally along the bed before the remaining broke off. Squash family plants have huge trailing shallow root systems.

This suddenly empty bed will be dug up and compost will be added before we plant some overwintering garlic and onions.

Week 38 - Bed EX1

The plants have become huge, especially the two at the far end of the bed.

There is a lot of new growth on the plants, and some of the older leaves in rough shape, which was probably caused in part by the huge amount of dust from the construction road about 60m away that covered the plants.

The yellow courgette still has not produced any fruit.

The Genovese Courgete plant is continuing to grow ...

... producing a 3 or 4 light mottled green fruit each week.

The Nero di Milano plant is huge and quite tall, with the fruits well hidden.

Week 36 - Bed EX1

The north end of teh bed has filled out with the growth of the courgette plants, but there is still an open space between the first two more compants plants.

Courgette plants form a compact bush compared to the sprawling squash and pumpkins, but each new courgette (right) is produced farther along the main vine/stem than the previous ones which leave a scar when harvested (white stumps at left).

Week 35 - Bed EX1

Both the Genovese and Nero di Milano Courgette (above) plants are very strong and have been producing a few fruit each week, some of them quite large.

Both of the Yellow Straightneck Courgette plants have produced many flowers but all of the fruit have been aborted, with rotting ends. this is most often due to insufficient pollination, but it is hard to understand why with so many flowers around, including on the other varieties (below) that they should be able to easily cross pollinate with. Perhaps it is the very compact form that is hiding the flowers from the few pollinators that are around.

Week 33 - Bed EX1

The plants continue to grow quickly and are starting to produce the first courgettes after 11 or 12 weeks.

The Yellow Straightneck Courgette is so compact the flowers are barely visible ...

... but pulling the leaves aside there are numerous female flowers with the small immature fruit already forming.

Detail of a female flower, which will only be open for one day, As will the male flower in the photo below.

The Nero di Milano Courgette has already produced a few fruits bug enough to pick.

Week 31 - Bed EX1

The 10 week old plants are all strong and growing well. The bushy form of the courgette plant tends to lean, and a large space has opened up between the first two plants as they grow in different directions.

The yellow courgette plant has a very compact shape.

The Genovese Courgette has a more open form with serrated leaves ...

...and is already starting to produce the flower buds, two female flowers in the foreground with a smaller male flower in the background.

The Nero di Milano has an open form, but with less serrated leaves ...

... with many small flowers buds starting to form.

Week 27 - Bed EX1

After 6 weeks this is the strongest plant in this bed and has is almost as big as the pot grown plants in bed DD1 which is 10 weeks old.

Week 25 - Bed EX1

The courgette plants, which were direct seeded 4 weeks ago, are doing well. They escaped the frost at the end of May and look like they could be doing better than the six week old plants that were raised in pots and transplanted last week in bed DD1.

After this photo, the courgettes were thinned to the strongest seedling.

Week 24 - Bed EX1

At least 3 seeds have sprouted in each hill.

The three week old seedlings are healthy and have sprouted the first true leaf.

Week 21 - Bed EX1 Planting

We prepared this bed as a rough lazy-bed and created 4 small mounds onto which we sowed:

• Nero di Milano Courgette (1 station of 4 seeds) - a dark green variety with lightly mottled fruits
• Genovese Courgette (1 station of 4 seeds) - a pale, early variety with fine lightly mottled green fruit
• Yellow Straightneck Courgette (2 stations of 4 seeds each) - an early maturing yellow variety with smooth yellow fruits

The raised hills were used to warm the soil to help germination. All but the strongest seedling will be removed to leave 4 plants with lots of room in the bed.