Courgette ‘Venus’ AGM @ Harlow Carr

Courgette ‘Venus’ is an AGM winning cultivar which we have grown for a couple of years now at Harlow Carr. It was grown on the 3m x 3m plot which was filmed for the BBC television series ‘Grow your Own’ and a single plant produced 17 (green) courgettes over the season!  More importantly, it did not develop powdery mildew – it also has attractively marked leaves.

 

Courgette

A courgette (or zucchini) is really a small summer squash. Along with some other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. The fruit can be yellow, green or light green, and generally has a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit.

In a culinary context, courgette is treated as a vegetable, which means it is usually cooked and presented as a savoury dish or accompaniment. Botanically, however, the courgette is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female courgette flower.

The name comes from courge, the French for squash. Zucca is the Italian word for squash, from where the masculine diminutive plural zucchini originates.

 

Courgette ‘Venus’

Courgette ‘Venus’ produces neatly compact plants which will produce a heavy crop of shiny, dark green cylindrical fruits throughout summer. Will produce over an impressively long season if harvested regularly. Harvest from June to frosts, protect with cloches to extend the season.

 

AGM

The RHS Vegetable Trials Subcommittee awarded courgette ‘Venus’ an Award of Garden Merit and described it as:

"F1 hybrid. Bush type; smooth, spine-free stems with dark green glossy fruits. Smooth-stemmed plant for ease of picking with dark green glossy fruits."

 

Cultivation

• Outdoor plantings will be pollinated by insects but any planted in the greenhouse will require hand pollination.

• Feed plants with sulphate of potassium (potash) fertiliser once fruiting commences and water and mulch regularly.

• Pick at least three times per week for heaviest crops and to extend the season.

• Powdery mildew may occur in late summer.

• Slugs and snails may cause damage to young fruits.

• Foot and root rots are associated with overwatered plants and badly drained soil. 

 

Propagation

• Sow seeds from April to May 2.5cm (1in) deep in pots or trays of good seed compost at 20°C (68F) under glass or in a propagator. Protect emerging seedlings from direct sunlight to avoid scorching. Alternatively sow direct outdoors, 2.5cm (1in) deep from mid May.

• Pot on individual seedlings into 7.5cm (3in) pots of compost and keep barely moist to avoid stem rot. Maintain a temperature of about 20°C (68F). Plant out 75 x 75cm (30 x 30in) apart once frost risk has passed.

 

Links

• Growing courgettes
• Courgette failure

 

 

Image: Andrew Chapman/RHS