Hello everybody In today's episode we will see how to grow
Zucchini How to harvest it and I'll also throw in a
nice zucchini recipe for you So to start with, here are some interesting
facts about Zucchini So the container I recommend for growing zucchini
is a 16'' wide container which is 15'' tall And you can see the video description for
the product that I generally use for all my vegetable container gardening
And you'll be surprised that it doesn't really cost much to grow in these 16'' containers
The Zucchini we will be planting today is the dark green zucchini
Zucchini grows best when it is sowed directly I do not recommend transplanting zucchinis
Because they are very fragile plants And you have to be very very careful if you
are transplanting zucchinis I just prefer to sow them in the ground directly
And all you need to do is take the seeds and space them a little apart
You can grow about two zucchinis in a container of this size
And then you can bury them just about the size of the seed itself, not too much
I've experimented with a lot of potting mixes and I finally found one that is really good
value for money Its available at most home improvement and
garden stores And its called Kellogg Patio Plus which is
a great mix with great ingredients So after planting the seeds I usually label
and add a date to all the plants that I have planted
So I know what's growing where And also make sure you water the plants well
When the plants are at the seed stage or the seedling stage
You need to maintain constant moisture which is very important for the seeds not to dry
out So in a very short time you will see the seeds
have germinated And there are two seeds which made it
Which is about the right thing for this sized container
In the next few days, you're going to see few leaves come out and this is the time you
need to consider adding fertilizers You can go organic and add a Fish/Seaweed
fertilizer Or you can use one of those water soluble
fertilizers Which you just mix in water and add to the
zucchini plants The zucchini plant will start flowing very
soon At this stage you want to start feeding your
zucchini plants a balanced fertilizer every 3 weeks
If you feed too much Nitrogen to the zucchini at this stage, its going to produce a lot
of leaves but very less zucchini And also note that the zucchini plant needs
a lot of water at this stage And the zucchini plant has different male
and female flowers So here you can see both the male and female
flowers Now the pollination is usually done by bees
But if you don't see zucchini forming on your plants, you need to pollinate them yourself
Just take a brush and then take some pollen from the male flower
And then just sprinkle it on to the female flower
And it will develop into a fruit
So one of the most common pests on the zucchini plant are aphids
These are black aphids that you can see on the zucchini plant
And today I'm going to show you an organic way to get rid of them
And this is as organic as it can get I am going to show you how to get rid of aphids
using Water! Yes you heard it right
All you need is a garden hose with shower or a jet spray
And water is all you need to get rid of these aphids
And I'll show you how
Just like that Just spray away those aphids
And they'll be gone You can also hold them while you're washing
So you get more control You can get rid of all your aphids this way
And don't worry about all the water that goes to the zucchini plants
They need all that water! So our zucchini plant has now started forming
nice squash I can see several here
Two of them right there And zucchinis must be harvested when they
are tender They will get very large but they will also
get very fibrous So you need to make sure you harvest them
at the right time Now this zucchini plant is actually pretty
big So the squash that it produces will also be
big So I'm going to wait just a couple of more
days To harvest this zucchini
Now remember that when the zucchini has started forming squash
It needs a lot of water Most of the zucchini squash is comprised of
water So you need to make sure you water the plant
thoroughly and deeply Otherwise your fruits are not going to form
So finally it looks like its time to harvest the zucchini
They look pretty well formed And I do not want to wait till it becomes
fibrous So I'm going to go ahead and harvest these
two zucchinis So to harvest the zucchini I'm going to use
a set of pruners Just make sure you make a clean cut
There we go! That looks pretty good
Nice, dark colored Its going to be a little light colored on
the other side where it doesn't get a lot of sun
And let's go ahead and harvest the other one Zucchini flowers are also edible by the way
They are actually a delicacy because you can't buy them in the market
And here is our second zucchini And that looks pretty good!
I'm going to show you two ways to harvest zucchini
The first way is to just hold the zucchini and give it a nice twist
Just like that And it comes off right away
And the other way of course is to use scissors or pruners
And make a clean cut And that's another way to harvest your zucchini
So I'll see you soon in another episode of California Gardening
Until then...Happy Gardening!