Courgette "Cora" F1, 5 seeds, Baltic Agro

• Species: Cucurbita pepo — courgette (zucchini)
• Variety: "Cora" F1 — hybrid, green, bush habit
• Producer: Baltic Agro, seed from France
• Packet: 5 seeds
• To harvest: 40–45 days after planting out
• Fruit: green, pick at 15–20 cm
• Sowing for transplants: late April–May into individual pots
• Planting out: once frost risk has passed (early June)
• Spacing: 75 × 75 cm
• Position: sunny, sheltered from wind
• Soil: warm, humus-rich, well fed
• Uses: frying, braising, roasting, pickling

Raise as transplants, not direct. Our summer is short: sow in late April into individual pots and plant out in early June once frost risk has passed. That brings the crop three weeks forward.

Prepare the hole. Dig a spade deeper and mix in a spadeful of compost. Courgettes are hungry — poor soil gives small fruit and an early finish.

Give it room. 75 cm per plant is not extravagant, however small the transplant looks. Crowded, the leaves hide the flowers, bees cannot find them and no fruit sets.

Pollination. Courgettes carry separate male and female flowers — the first flowers are male and set no fruit, which is normal. If a fruitlet yellows from the tip and shrivels, pollination failed: move pollen from a male flower to a female one with a brush.

Watering. Generously and at the root, not over the leaves. In heat 10–15 l per plant twice a week. A straw mulch holds moisture and keeps the fruit clean.

Picking. Every 2–3 days, at 15–20 cm. One forgotten marrow stops the plant: it decides the seed is ripe and sets no more flowers.