Zucchini Growing Tips For 2023

I often get asked what's the one crop that's easy enough for anyone to grow regardless of their skill level yet still impressed with its abundance of harvest no question my answer to that is always the same zucchinis a ridiculously prolific summer squash that virtually anyone can grow but despite this guy's plentiful nature there are things that even veteran Growers can do to get the most from this crop today let's talk about all things zucchinis let's look at all those growing tips that you need to know to give you a healthier plant which in turn is going to provide you with more consistent reliable harvests zucchinis are the rare crop that I grow or I'm exactly 50 50 on the fence on whether to direct seed or start them early being a warm weather summer plant either way you're going to want to wait for those soil temperatures and your nighttime lows to reach at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit if you are direct seeding simply place two or three seeds about an inch deep in some nice moist soil planting more than one seed is going to give you a hundred percent site success for germination and then you can just thin to the strongest plant after they sprout likewise for starters I pre-seed my zucchinis about two months before I intend to plant them outside one seed per cell in a moist organic seeding mix kept at a relatively High 80 degrees Fahrenheit within a week the plants will emerge first it'll be two huge sea leaves or cotyledons followed by the more familiar true leaves about a week later again ensuring that the nighttime lows are staying above 65 degrees Fahrenheit plant your zucchinis in a full sun location in a moist but well-drained soil about two feet apart zucchinis are a large Plant and even with diligent pruning and maintenance they need their space mulch the plants nice and thick and then water thoroughly pretty basic and easy stuff so far and for the most part this is all that you'll need to do to obtain those epic zucchini harvests however there can be pitfalls even with epic producers like these guys and it usually boils down to problems with the three p's pollination pests and pestilence let's look at those pests first unfortunately with zucchinis for as big as they grow the list of pests that attacks them is equally as large the top ones are aphids cucumber beetles cut worms Leaf miners spider mites squash bugs squash fine borers thrips and white fly for all of these prevention is the best medicine as pests will often choose to attack plants that are subpar health-wise over or under watering is always going to be a draw for pests in fact so is over fertilizing Fine mulches Like Straw really seem to help and for cutworms and Vine borers planting a dense cover crop the previous winter prevents the eggs and The larva from ever being laid in the first place keeping your zucchinis happier and healthier in the process however as true gardeners we know that not all insects are bad zucchinis like all squash have imperfect flowers that's not to say they're not stunning because they really are now what I mean by imperfect is referring to the scientific definition of a flower indicating that each one is either male or female not both to more accurately put it another way they are incomplete when it comes to trying to pollinate themselves as such zucchinis really do rely on external factors to pollinate their flowers and thus produce their fruit and the largest contributor to this are bees it's the male flowers that pop out first on rather elongated stems and while they do last quite a long time the timing doesn't always work out with the female ones don't be surprised if the bloom times for your male and female zucchini flowers aren't always matching up the best way to combat this is to Simply plant multiple plants that way male and female flowers are always available for Max pollination now to diagnose whether or not you have a pollination issue in the first place you'll start getting fruit that looks like it's succumbed to blossom end rot it's indicative of otherwise healthy plants that are consistently producing small underdeveloped fruit that'll often rot shrivel up and fall off if the plant looks good even though this looks exactly like blossom end rot nine times out of ten it's a pollination issue let me tell you pollination issues are the single biggest factor in holding you back to getting those epic zucchini harvests so if you're ever in doubt hand pollination can be done and that brings us to our final P which is pestilence better known as disease much like pests this one manifests itself when the plants are under stress or they're grown in sub-optimal conditions the top culprit here is powdery mildew and if you've never seen it you've likely never grown zucchinis before wet overlapping overgrown leaves as well as poor airflow are the main causes here and they're easily solvable by not watering the leaves from above and dedicated pruning and leaf management and this brings us right into our active growing tips the day-to-day things that we can do with our zucchini plants to help them grow better and tops on that list is pruning zucchinis want to grow large leaves and lots of them it's in their nature however only the leaves above the fruit contribute anything back to it which for us means anything below that fruit is unnecessary to the plant as well as our harvests so we can prune It Off just this simple Act of taking off a few leaves is going to increase your airflow allow the plant to direct more energy to its fruit as well as get those leaves further away from The Mulch and soil and the direct vectors that transmit pests and disease this coupled with the removal of yellow and dying leaves is the single biggest thing that you can do for keeping your zucchini plants healthier for longer but of course there's a few more as well and a big one is water like we said zucchinis are large plants look at these leaves and look at the fruit for that matter these guys take a copious amount of water just to live so make sure to do it in the morning and water that soil thoroughly and directly not only to keep those leaves dry but also to train the roots to go downwards next we have nutrients big plants need Big Time food but not all the time and definitely not just one macro the tendency with large plants like zucchini is to go huge with the nitrogen and while these plants do need this macronutrient a balanced approach is infinitely better like we said before too much nitrogen all at once is going to attract the pests as well it's going to stimulate the plant to produce Leaf growth over fruit production something we don't want for zucchinis go with the balanced NPK and only feed them twice in their entire lifetime once right after you plant them and then again when you start to see more than two or three blooms all of that is really good stuff but like we said without proper pollination you're not going to be getting any fruit at least nothing usable make sure that the flowers can be seen from above and try to grow more than one zucchini plant to increase active pollination if problems do persist don't hesitate to hand pollinate a few flowers to see if that rectifies the issue once you get into true zucchini production they come fast and furious which brings us to our final point and that's to pick more to harvest more zucchinis are best harvested immature and small around six to eight inches long depending on the variety by harvesting that fruit early and often the plant gets to reset itself and get ready for the next round of production brilliant stuff brilliant but kind of overwhelming we covered a lot of stuff today so to help make sense of it all here's a helpful recap zucchinis are such a unique crop in that ninety percent of the time they'll produce more than we can possibly eat yet it's those one out of ten times where something goes wrong that frustrates us the most three main issues arise when growing zucchinis pollination problems pests and pestilence also known as disease like all squash plants these guys have both male and female flowers so pollination can be a bit tricky it's almost always accomplished by bees so keeping the flowers visible and growing more than one plant is the best solution there are bad insects though and quite a few pests can attack squash and zucchini plants fortunately healthy specimens seem to be able to fight them off the key is not to over fertilize over water or underwater them if you can give them lots of sun air and the right amount of moisture pests usually won't be an issue finally prune all the lower leaves below the lowest fruit and remove any yellow or dying ones periodically as they appear The increased airflow will ward off powdery mildew allowing your zucchini plants to produce for you for much longer much more reliably and that's really where you'll want to get to with these guys [Music] zucchinis are no doubt a monster producer and for the most part don't need any help from us to give a monstrous Harvest however if you've ever found yourself battling with this crop or maybe your plants burn out early there's usually a reason for this hopefully today we've armed you with all the tools that you'll need to set your zucchini plants up for their best season yet hey happy growing guys and I'll see you soon hey thanks so much for watching guys I appreciate the support more than you know and if you're getting value from these videos please like and share them to spread the word and help your fellow Gardener to grow better foreign

Channel: The Ripe Tomato Farms

Views: 81,773

Keywords: growing zucchini, gardening tips, how to grow zucchini, grow squash vertically, grow squash on a trellis, grow squash in containers, grow squash in raised beds, grow zucchini in containers, grow zucchini in a raised bed, small space gardening, fertilizer for squash, fertilizer for zucchini, gardening, garden tips, gardening secrets, organic gardening, squash, summer squash, squash vine borers, squash bugs, cucumber beetle, how to squash vine borer, epic gardening

Id: xyMOgoahyxQ

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023