How to grow Zucchini?

Zucchini is rich in nutritional value and has a wide range of medicinal values and easy to plant. In addition to protein, it also contains carbohydrates, vitamin A, vitamin C and many beneficial minerals for the human body. According to clinical identification of Chinese medicine, if you eat zucchini regularly, it can help people with obesity symptoms lose weight. Zucchini can be eaten with young and tender fruits, as well as mature fruits. According to the color, its fruit can be divided into light green with netting, tender green, dark green, light yellow, white and so on. Zucchini is suitable for frying, making soup, making fillings, and can also be made into grilled zucchini, zucchini salad, fried zucchini and so on, so zucchini is very popular. Growing zucchini in pots(or green papaya) is very simple. If you want to encourage your children to grow something, this Zucchini plant is ideal. The time from planting to harvest of zucchini is not very long, and it is easy to excite young gardeners.

Ready to plant Zucchini

You'd better decide how to start planting zucchini. Under normal circumstances, there are two methods, one is to plant zucchini seeds directly, and the other is to plant zucchini seedlings. If you choose to plant zucchini seeds, you must plant the seeds in the place of your choice 4 to 6 weeks before the time when the seedlings should be moved outdoors. Although it is easier and less time-consuming to plant seedlings directly, it may make you less sense of accomplishment than planting seeds directly. There are several kinds of zucchini, but they all produce similar fruits. You may see two types of zucchini, one is open-growing and the other is dense-growing. This classification is based on the way the leaves grow (see whether the leaves are vine-type or shrub-type) .
The vine-type summer squash generally belongs to zucchini, while the shrub-type type belongs to winter squash.
The color of zucchini is between yellow and dark green (close to black), and may have slight streaks and spots, which are normal.

Know when to start planting zucchini

Summer squash is generally considered to belong to zucchini because it is reproduced and harvested in summer. There are some varieties called winter squash, and it refers to the time of fruiting, not the time of planting. Zucchini is the sun favorite, they do not grow in cold places. Therefore, you must ensure that the planting temperature of zucchini is not lower than 12.8 degrees Celsius when planting. Especially in the first and second weeks, otherwise it will not have a chance to grow. If you are not sure when to plant it, it’s a good choice to call the local agricultural extension office and ask for details of the zucchini and when it will be planted.

Find a perfect planting location of zucchini

Zucchini can thrive in sunny places. Finding a suitable place in your garden that can guarantee 6 to 10 hours of sunshine a day and is not dark is the first step. Make sure that the soil you choose has good drainage, because although zucchini likes moist soil, it will not thrive if it is too humid.
If the drainage is not good and there is no better location, then the environment can only be modified to make the zucchini plant grows better.
You'd better avoid planting zucchini on the north side of the garden, as this location has the least amount of sunlight.

Prepare your soil

Although not everyone has the time to prepare the most suitable soil for growing zucchini months in advance, they should also mix gardening mulch and fertilizer before planting to supplement the soil with the necessary nutrients. You'd better check the pH of the soil and change the pH if necessary. Zucchini prefers a soil environment with a pH between 6 and 7.5. In order to increase the acidity of the soil (decrease the pH), peat moss or pine needles can be mixed; to increase the alkalinity of the soil (increase the pH), lime can be added. Fertilize the soil on time every month. If you can do this, it will help the nutrients to be more fully integrated into the soil.
If your soil of zucchini does not drain well, you can mix some sand to help drainage.

Start planting zucchini

If you don't want to plant your zucchini seeds directly into the soil, you can plant them indoors for 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting them outdoors. After grabbing the seedlings together with some soil and transplant them to the outside soil,, it's time to put one seed in each tray, add 0.3 cm of soil mixture, and place them in an environment with sunlight and a temperature above 15.5 degrees Celsius. When the second wave of sprouts grows, the zucchini is ready to be transplanted outdoors.

Get your tools ready

Using a gardening tool to dig a small hole for the zucchini is a better choice. If you are planting zucchini seeds, you need to plant each seed 1.2 cm deep under the soil. The size of the pit should be slightly larger than your plant root ball, and keep a gap of 75-100 cm between each plant (the row space distance is the same). If necessary, thin seedlings can be thinned (pulling out some poorly growing seedlings and leaving thick seedlings).

Grow your zucchini seed

Each seed is planted in its own independent pit. You'd better cover the seeds with 0.6-1.2 cm thick soil so that they can get the sunlight and water necessary for germination. Covering enough soil is not considered complete planting of zucchini, it must be watered enough.

Protect your zucchini plant

It's vital to pay attention to the growth of your zucchini. Although they don't need much attention, they also need some maintenance to keep them in the best growth state. Pulling weeds, and then spread a layer of mulch to prevent weeds, this is a problem to be dealt with repeatedly. To help promote the growth of zucchini, liquid fertilizer can be added every 3-4 weeks. You could put off any diseased or dead fruits or branches to prevent the disease from spreading to other parts of the plant, thereby promoting the continuous growth of the plant

Promote growth of zucchini

In order for your plants to bear fruit, you must first pollinate them. If there are no bees and other pollinating insects in your area, or your zucchini does not seem to produce fruit, then you can pollinate your plants yourself. You could choose a male melon flower, which is characterized by a long, thin stem and a stamen in the center. It’s a good choice to pull it out carefully and rub it on the pistil of the zucchini flower. The stem of the female flower is relatively short, and the place where the flower connects to the stem is spherical, without stamens. You can only pollinate a few flowers, depending on your time and urgency to promote growth of zucchini.

Harvest zucchini

When the zucchini grows to at least 10 cm long, it is ready to be picked. Picking regularly can increase the yield of zucchini. Therefore, if you need more zucchini, pick all the mature ones. If you don't need too much zucchini, you can leave one or two melons on the stem during the growing season to slow down its growth. You can harvest zucchini by cutting the zucchini from the stem with a sharp knife.
The flowers of zucchini can be used for salads. These zucchini flowers are edible, and if you pick the flowers, of course you won’t produce so many zucchini fruits.
If they grow well in the spring, the crops can grow until the first frost. If you don't want to pick all the zucchini, you can also cut off a zucchini stem to promote its growth.

Hints

The yellow and green fruits taste the same, but if you plant zucchini plants a lot, the yellow ones will be more eye-catching and easy to spot!
Zucchini is a good filling and can be added to pasta sauce and then made into soup. It can also be used in salads and is often used to grind into silk to make zucchini noodles as you like.

Attention

You'd better watch out for whiteflies, aphids, mites, nematodes, molds, molds and viruses.
If the fruit does not grow well, it is because the female flowers are not pollinated. You can pick off a male flower and manually pollinate the female flower to solve this problem.

You need to prepare

Zucchini seeds
Mining tool
Suitable planting space

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