courgettes

[Kveta]

I have lost all my courgette plants this year :( all have damped off in the shed, or died in the bloody frost the day after being planted out. No garden centres locally appear to have any for sale.

is it too late to plant some more out? if not, what variety would be best? and can they just go outside directly, in this hideous weather?

thanks :)

Courgettes are not planted out until after last frost, end of May where I live.

You can still sow them now or buy some later in May.

You can get some plants from www.rocketgardens.co.uk

Mine haven't been dispatched yet so you've plenty of time

I've got 20 coming.

Me too - I planted them two weeks ago on the saturday and they got wiped out on he bloody sunday night. I was kicking myself as was warned there would be a hard frost and I forgot to cover them

I planted some more yesterday (seeds in the greenhouse)

Laurie, do you have a contract to supply Tesco with courgettes, or live in a commune or something? what on earth are you going to do with all those Courgettes?

(OP - start again from scratch with seeds indoors/in greenhouse; plenty of time yet)

We just really, really love them - happy to eat a dozen roasted a day

Got 40 beetroot and 20 caulis coming too.

Definitely not at all too late to sow from seed. I never sow before the very end of April, often into May, and tbh they catch up very quickly with ones sown earlier that linger in cold weather.

I'd still start them in pots, then harden off & plant out when they've got two true leaves completely open & the third just coming. Even better if you can give them a bit of protection when they go out (bottomless pot surrounding them / fleece over hoops or whatever) just to keep the wind off.

thanks everyone, will get some seeds planted this weekend. I did want as many veg planted out as possible before the end of may, as DC2 is due in early june, and bending over in the garden is killing my back already! but maybe I can get some ready to be planted out once baby is a few weeks old :o

Laurie thanks for that site - I think even 5 courgette plants would be ambitious for us. We had 2 last year, and got well over 100 courgettes off them, and as I'm the only one who will willingly eat them, I think a single plant will have to do this year! Am tempted by the beetroot though, as the seeds I've planted out are not doing brilliantly yet. May just need to do a second sowing this weekend, and hope the weather improves at some point!