GROWING ZUCCHINI SQUASH

hello everybody in today's episode we
will see how to grow zucchini how to
harvest it and also throw in a nice zoo
Keaney recipe for you so to start with
here are some interesting facts about
zucchini
so the container I recommend for growing
zucchini is a 16 inch wide container
which is 15 inches tall and you can see
the video description for the product
that I generally use for all my
vegetable container gardening and you'll
be surprised that it doesn't really cost
much to grow in these 16 inch containers
the zucchini we'll be planting today is
the dark green zucchini zucchini grows
best when it is sold directly I do not
recommend transplanting zucchinis
because they're very fragile plants and
you have to be very very careful if
you're transplanting zucchinis I just
prefer to sow them in the ground
directly and all you need to do is take
the seeds and space them a little apart
you can grow about 2 zucchinis in a
container of this size and then you can
bury them just about the size of the
seed itself not too much I have
experimented with a lot of potting mixes
and I finally found one that is a really
good value for money it's available at
most home improvement and garden stores
and it's called the kellogg patio plus
which is a great mix with great
ingredients so after planting the seeds
I usually label and add a date to all
the plants that I've planted so I know
what's growing where and also make sure
you water the plants well when the
plants are in the seed stage or the
seedling stage you need to maintain a
constant moisture which is very
important for the seeds not to dry out
so in a very short time you will see the
seeds have germinated and there are two
seeds which made it which is about the
right thing for this sized container
in the next few days you're going to see
a few leaves come out and this is the
time you need to consider adding
fertilizers you can go organic and add a
fish or seaweed fertilizer or you can
use one of those water soluble
fertilizers which you just mix in water
and add to the zucchini plants the
zucchini plant will start flowering very
soon at this stage you want to start
feeding your zucchini plants a balanced
fertilizer every three weeks if you feed
too much nitrogen to the zucchini at
this stage it's going to produce a lot
of leaves but very low zucchini and also
note that the zucchini plant needs a lot
of water in this stage and the zucchini
plant has different male and female
flowers so here you can see both the
male and female flowers now the
pollination is usually done by bees but
if you don't see zucchini forming on
your plants you need to pollinate them
yourself just take a brush and then take
some pollen from the male flower and
then just sprinkle it on the female
flower and it will develop into a fruit
you
you
so one of the most common pests on the
zucchini plant are a feds
these are black aphids that you can see
on the zucchini plant and today I'm
going to show you an organic way to get
rid of them and this is as organic as it
can get
I'm going to show you how to get rid of
aphids using water yes you heard it
right all you need is a garden hose with
a shower or a jet spray and water is all
you need to get rid of these effects and
I'll show you how just like that just
pray away those aphids and they'll be
gone
you can also fold them while you're
washing so you get more control you can
get rid of all your April to this way
and don't worry about all the water that
goes to your zucchini plants they need
all that water
so our zucchini plant has now started
forming nice squash I can see several
here two of em right there and Sookie
knees must be harvested when they are
tender they will get very large but they
will also get very fibrous so you need
to make sure that you harvest them at
the right time now this zucchini plant
is actually pretty big
so the squash that it produces will also
be very big so I'm gonna adjust for a
couple more days to harvest this
zucchini now remember that when the
zucchini has started forming squash it
needs a lot of water most of the
zucchini squash is comprised of water so
you need to make sure you water the
plant thoroughly and deeply otherwise
your fruits are not going to form so
finally it looks like it's time to
harvest the zucchini
they look pretty well-formed and I do
not want to wait till it becomes fibrous
so I'm going to go ahead and harvest
these two zucchinis
so to harvest the zucchini I'm going to
use a set of pruners just make sure you
make a clean cut there we go that looks
pretty good nice dark colored it's going
to be a little light colored on the
other side but it doesn't get a lot of
Sun and let's go ahead and harvest the
other one zucchini flowers are also
edible by the way they are actually a
delicacy because you can't buy them in
the market and here is our second
zucchini
and that looks pretty good I'm gonna
show you two ways to harvest okie knee
the first ways to just hold the zucchini
and give it a nice twist just like that
and it comes off right away
and the other way of course is to use
scissors or pruners and make a clean cut
and that's another way to harvest your
zucchini
you
so I'll see you soon in another episode
of California gardening until then happy
gardening