Harvesting Zucchini: Mulching with grass increases yield
Created: 07/04/2022, 08:00
By: Eva Goldschald
Zucchini plants are considered rather undemanding.
However, to ensure that the zucchini harvest is even richer, mulching and regular manure help.
Munich – Courgettes taste fine grated in a salad, baked with cheese in a casserole or as noodles for low-carb dishes.
In the greenhouse, in the bed or even on the balcony, the plants can be easily grown by yourself if they are given enough space.
For even more yield, garden fans should heed a few tips.
Harvesting Zucchini: Mulching with grass increases yield
To get a bounty harvest, zucchini should be mulched and regularly weeded.
(Iconic image) © Panthermedia/Imago
The zucchini belongs to the pumpkin family and thrives best where it gets a lot of light, where many insects are around and where the plant can be watered regularly.
In addition, it must be sufficiently pollinated.
If this does not happen, young shoots can simply fall off.
Even in rainy or cool weather, zucchini thrive more poorly than well.
On the other hand, you can do a lot so that the plant grows well and bears many fruits:
Pollinate flowers by hand
Mulch the bed with grass clippings
Cheer regularly
Zucchini Harvest: Pollinate flowers by hand
The zucchini plant has both male and female flowers.
This is essential for pollination.
Female flowers have a thicker stem than male ones.
These in turn have an ovary that looks like a small zucchini.
If there are too few insects to pollinate the plant, you have to take the scepter in hand.
To do this, simply rub a brush or cotton swab over the pollen of the male flower and then apply it directly to the stigma of the female flower.
Alternatively, you can simply stroke the stigma with the male flower.
When the zucchini is thriving and thickening, remove the petals.
This protects the plant from fungal diseases.
Zucchini harvest: Mulch the bed with grass clippings
If the zucchini grows slowly, it will eventually become so heavy that it will rest on the ground.
Since zucchini should always be watered well, the soil on which the fruit is lying is also damp.
Therefore, the zucchini may start to rot.
To prevent this, garden fans can cover the ground with fresh grass clippings or nettles.
This protects the fruits and they can continue to grow in peace.
The soil also gets some fertilizer from the nitrogen when nettles or grass rot.
In addition, the soil remains evenly moist.
Zucchini Harvest: Cheer regularly
While zucchini are in the growing phase, they need lots of water and plenty of nutrients too.
They are so-called heavy feeders.
In addition to the well-known fertilizers such as sheep's wool pellets, you can also prepare manure from stinging nettles.
If garden fans refine this liquid manure with horsetail, they also protect the plants against mildew.
Because the stalks contain silica, which protects the cell walls of the zucchini from fungi.
Incidentally, courgettes are ripe when they are between twelve and 20 centimeters long, the skin feels bulging and they cannot be dented.
The inflorescence must have dried out or fallen off at the front end.
Then you can process them, for example, into delicious zucchini buffers.
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