Zucchini How to harvest it and I'll also throw in a

nice zucchini 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'' wide container which is 15'' 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'' containers

The Zucchini we will be planting today is the dark green zucchini

Zucchini grows best when it is sowed directly I do not recommend transplanting zucchinis

Because they are very fragile plants And you have to be very very careful if you

are 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 two 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've experimented with a lot of potting mixes and I finally found one that is really good

value for money Its available at most home improvement and

garden stores And its called 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 have planted

So I know what's growing where And also make sure you water the plants well

When the plants are at the seed stage or the seedling stage

You need to maintain 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 few leaves come out and this is the time you

need to consider adding fertilizers You can go organic and add a Fish/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 flowing very

soon At this stage you want to start feeding your

zucchini plants a balanced fertilizer every 3 weeks

If you feed too much Nitrogen to the zucchini at this stage, its going to produce a lot

of leaves but very less zucchini And also note that the zucchini plant needs

a lot of water at 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 to the female flower

And it will develop into a fruit

So one of the most common pests on the zucchini plant are aphids

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 am 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 shower or a jet spray

And water is all you need to get rid of these aphids

And I'll show you how

Just like that Just spray away those aphids

And they'll be gone You can also hold them while you're washing

So you get more control You can get rid of all your aphids this way

And don't worry about all the water that goes to the zucchini plants

They need all that water! So our zucchini plant has now started forming

nice squash I can see several here

Two of them right there And zucchinis 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 you harvest them

at the right time Now this zucchini plant is actually pretty

big So the squash that it produces will also be

big So I'm going to wait just a couple of 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 its 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 Its going to be a little light colored on

the other side where 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 going to show you two ways to harvest zucchini

The first way is 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

So I'll see you soon in another episode of California Gardening

Until then...Happy Gardening!