Cucurbit growing 2017

I like courgette patio star, it only stays small.

Cucumbers, for outdoors I grow green fingers and indoors carmen.

First couple of years ive found cucumber growing very difficult but last year Ive found a way that works for me.

I sow individually into 3l pots in the conservatory no earlier than mid April, cucumbers hate the cold but do grow super quickly

Cucumbers hate being in wet soil so I direct the watering around the seed only and do not wet the whole pot, Once its germinated and grow a few inches I put a collar made from an old plant pot around the neck and it can rot her and water around the collar.

After a couple of weeks once the roots have grown I water from the base only using a saucer, the top of the soil now stays dry.

I pot on only once into its final pot and do so without any root disturbance by carefully removing the pot and putting on into a pre made identical hole in the bigger pot.

Water only from the base and use a tomato fert once a week.


I know that sounds complicated but cucumbers are a pain in the ass, they hate the cold, hate being wet and hate any root disturbance.

Cues - sown a week or so ago as I am usually behind others. Some in gh border, some in pots, some in ground in veg patch.

Perfection - grown once before, really nice large cue type.
Boothby Blond - small, yellow, cue. Grown before. Plants can be quite short lived.
Nellie M's Surprise - new this year. All I know is it is a gherkin type.
Alficoz/ Serpent Melon - New this year. A Spanish version of carosello.
Apple Cue - grown before. Fun cue which can be grown in gh or outdoors good producer.

Melon - Only sowed the other day. Last year was my first real attempt at growing and the few fruit I had were small. Most will be planted in the gh.

Early Silverline
Tigger Melon
Prescott Fond Blanc
Minnesota Midget
Sleeping Beauty
Italian Mystery
Boulde D'or
Ha O'gen

Water Melon - Red Seeded Citron
Water Melon - Sugar Baby

Courgettes - to be sown next month. Will be planted in the ground in the veg patch.

Green Bush - mainstay courgette
Lungo Bianco - Love this courgette. Thin white skin, slighter sweeter and drier courgette.
Golden zuchinni - OP yellow variety can be temperamental.
Rond de Nice - a fun round courgette.

Squash and pumpkins - dunno yet but will be growing small fruited varieties this year.

Total newb/noob to growing curcubits but I'm having a go at:

Melons - stupidly I started off some shop bought honeydew seeds a few weeks ago, sowed seed on its side and its currently sitting in the front living room window, got 4 true leaves on each plant so far..!
Petit gris de rennes cantaloupe type from a friend in Ireland not sown yet
Sugar baby watermelon from lidl - all going in a polytunnel on allotment not sown yet

courgette - all green bush not sown yet (outside?)

Pumpkin - Dills atlantic giant (!!!) not sown yet, going outside on allotment

did pick up ornamental gourds from lidl too, no idea what I'm going to do with them

No squash or cukes, don't like them.

Have sown courgettes so far: two Black Beauty, 2 Jemmer, will sow another one of each later in the season. We eat a lot of courgettes...

Will also be sowing melons and winter squash. I'll post them as I go. I might be overdoing it on the squash. If I write them all down at once, I'll look utterly insane.
Will also be sowing one marrow plant (for chutney).

Not growing cukes or pumpkins. We only eat cucumbers in gazpacho, and by the time our toms are good enough for that, cucumbers are really cheap in the shops. Plus, fessing up here, I never seem to do very well at growing them.

I'll be growing courgette green bush as the mainstay plus one plant each of Piccolo, which makes big round courgettes good for soup, and Goldmine which is parthenocarpic and produces large numbers of yellow and white striped fruit. Most will go in the soil as I find pot grown courgettes are more likely to get mildew. I might try one in a self watering saladgrow planter to see if that helps.

I tried cucumber Cucino in my friend's greenhouse last year and was absolutely sold on it. Its an all-female so no messing about pollinating and it just gets on with producing a new cucumber every couple of days. The cucumbers are the short ones and taste great. I'm going to try growing some outside at home in pots trained up the fence. The last variety I grew (Vega) had branches everywhere and was really hard to train, but Cucino seems to produce very few branches, just a leaf then a cucumber then a leaf... all the way up the stem.

Melons are getting one last try this year. For the last 2 years I have tried to grow 2 "outdoor" varieties Alvaro and Magenta. From a total of 6 plants, all grown in a greenhouse/growhouse I have had precisely 0 flowers, let alone any fruit. They have been grown in pots (including self watering), given the prime sunniest position, fed , talked to and generally pampered. They grow plenty of leaves and long trailing stems, but they just won't flower. This year I am going to try growing them in a small hotbed under a cloche. If that doesn't work I give up.

I don't grow squash or pumpkins - I don't like them and don't have the space.

Cucumber - I'll be growing self saved waotoma this year. Grew it last year and loved it.

Courgette - burps golden and crookneck (a summer squash really) going to try to hand pollinate and save seed from both of these

Squash - spaghetti - have grown this before and love it. Trying queensland blue and uchiki kiri as well & trying to save seed from all of these.

All in the ground, some through membrane on the bank between us and field next door. Might try some of the uchiki kiri up an arch. The spaghetti squash climbed by itself last year!

Grow lots of all of these as love them all.

Cukes, La Diva short cukes and reliable every year, no pollination required.

Courgettes, Romanesco and Parthenon which doesn't need pollination, so great for earlier fruiting.

Squash, Acorn squashes Table Gold and Thelma Sanders Celebration, Uchiki Kuri (aka Potimarron) Black Futsu, Blue Ballet, Harrier Buttenut and Tromba d'Albenga. Plus Jarrahdale a new one for this year.

I've tried melons a few times with zero luck so gave up!

I won't sow any of these 'til after mid April.

I could recommend yellow courgette Atena. Very profilic.
I slowly come back to gardening after having a break so can't remember all the varieties I grew but this year I'm trying all new varieties

I am not going to grow as many plants or varieties as last year.

No

No way

Definitely not.

All these seeds - which to choose.

Do you think I couldn't giant pumpkins to climb a hawthorn hedge?

Forgot to say I'm also trying melon this year - minnesota midget. Cucs sowed today, courgettes and squashes in a couple of weeks

On the melon front, I've had success with Arava (moreveg) and ogen melons from Nicky's seeds. I know you're all going to say "Yes, but..." We probably do get more hours of sun, but we also get torrential storms in summer and weeks on end of gale force winds. The Arava will grow to a decent size. The ogen melons are quite small, so are perhaps more likely to do well in the UK, and taste fantastic.

All my curcubits from MoreVeg say sow mid April onwards... - am I missing something with people saying they have sown already?

Have tried Melons before, no success. But trying Arava this year, coz I'm a sucker for trying.

Cucumbers in the poly tunnel have worked before, so having ago again this year. Plus a pumpkin for the wee man to carve and a variety of butternut squash this year to see if I can figure out which ones grow best.

All from MoreVeg in small quantities.

I will give Melon a bash in the greenhouse again, grew one in Leicestershire in the 1980's, got one rather small fruit. Also intend to grow one cucumber plant, my wife and daughter eat them, I can't with my Gall stones problem, upset my tummy too much, pity as I used to love ridge cucumbers and used to pickle the small ones to make gherkins.

I'm growing La Diva and probably Marketmore cukes this year. I didn't do well with them last year as I ignored them too much.

I'll have about 8 courgette plants (I really REALLY like 'em) of varying colours - green, striped, the ones with green ends (Zephyr?) and a yellow, usually Atena F1. I am saving seed from 2 of the plants though, so that means they are useless for courgettes to eat once the fruit has set.

For melons I'm going for Kajari (last attempt with these!) in a cloche outside and also a watermelon outside. I only usually get one watermelon, but it's so tasty, and so good for bragging rights in my (non-growing) family...'oh yes, this watermelon was grown outdoors doncha know...'

Squashes are a bit of a weakness. My draft list looks silly, but I think it will all fit. Just. Some varieties might get swapped over, but here it is:
Baby Blue Hubbard, Black Futsu*, Chirimen, Cornell’s Delicata, Flat White Boer*, Japanese Pie*, Potimarron*, Shishigatani, Sibleys, Sucrette* (grown for HSL seed guardian scheme), Thelma Sanders*, Tonda Padana, Upper Ground Sweet Potato*, Whangaparoa Crown*, Waltham Butternut, Yokohama. PLUS first ever attempt at a Giant Pumpkin for entry into the site’s biggest pumpkin compy. Watch out Ruth…(mwah hahahahaha). Anything with a * is for seed saving this year, given I pretty much hand pollinate all the female flowers.