I adore home-grown courgettes. They lack that slightly bitter taste and spongy texture you can get with supermarket specimens.
I adore home-grown courgettes. They lack that slightly bitter taste and spongy texture you can get with supermarket specimens. My first fruits were a bit late this year, as I’d delayed planting because of cold weather. They were well worth the wait.
This year I’m growing a couple of different varieties. One is rather straggly, but does crop phenomenally well. Its massive golden flowers are set against a backdrop of pure green leaves. Unfortunately I don’t know the variety name, as the packet is long gone! All I know is that the plant is a Seeds of Italy variety.
The other, ‘Midnight’, is a more of a ‘classic’ courgette shape; far more compact and healthy looking, but it does have slivery grey straight-edged markings on the leaves. At this time of year, I can pretty well guarantee that every time I come across a gaggle of gardeners I’ll be asked if these silvery markings are symptoms of mildew, and whether the plants should be sprayed.
I rather like the streaky appearance, but it does seem to cause a lot of unnecessary worry – and unnecessary spraying. It can be alarming when a plant doesn’t appear as you expect it to (think of those curious, rather unpleasant looking grey-brown patchy folds on the flower end of many beefsteak tomatoes). Features like this might be unexpected, but they’re quite normal. If the plant is cropping well, and seems to be in general good health, I ignore them!
See more comments...
