how to successfully introduce new vegetables in your country?

[Gevalia]

hello everyone!

I've been trying to grow zucchini for a few weeks, and so far its doing good. i want to introduce this vegetable to my country for following reasons:

1) almost none of my countrymen knows what zucchini is, and you cant buy this from the market. few are available in super market, but that is so seldom. if i want to make the most out of the limited space i have for gardening, i will grow something that i really cant buy from the locality.

2) i want to amaze everyone who knows that im gardening..imagine handling them an alien vegetable? im sure theyll consider gardening too if they would like zucchinis.

3) ive never tried zucchini ( promise! i could buy one from the super market at a high price, i can afford it coz i work but i would rather eat the fruits of my labor. literally! thats gonna be sentimental)

4) i researched soo much about this vegetable, the temperature it needs, soil type and i think its suited for the Philippines ( i still dont know why its not widely cultivated here)

5) little to no threat of specie invasion, and if it happens, i dont mind eating lots of zucchini!

6) to those who would say that its not good to introduce a non indigent specie in my country, id say most of the vegetables, fruits and ornamentals we have now are introduced by foreigners....say the jicama from mexico, the egg plants from india, bitter melons from china, radish from japan....and since the seeds im using are from UK ( thank you Shetty of vegetable forum) someday people will recognize Zucchinis from UK!


here are the photos so far of the plants developments ..enjoy and comments and advises are very welcome



i used biodegradable pots to start them...at first i was concern that they might not grow roots in these pots, but i realized i was wrong.



in few days, the baby zucchini was already boasting its classy real leaves.




Container 1 having the best zucchinis...im still unable to thin it....i dont have the heart to do it..can anyone tell me how? can i just do that?



zucchinis in the sunniest spot of my garden. they get up to 1o hours of direct sunlight each day, and im sure they arent so happy about it. but i cant place them elsewhere, you see, i have very limited space and all are already taken.

[DavidT]

They are looking very good Gevalia. With container 1, Gently remove one of the plants and put it a pot of it`s own. As the plants are in such bright sunshine I would suggest you try and rig some sort of screen to give them a little shade.

[Gevalia]

thank you for the advise i actually followed your advise and carefully transferred the other zucchini to another container ( it was easy since the plants are in biodegradable pots). however i have another concern about my beloved zucchinis...


some of the leaves of the other 2 plants ( the ones that i thought were healthier , in container 1) were having white lines with very tiny black dots. loot at the photo:



i immediately removed them ( they were the 1st 2 leaves of each plant, both 2 seedlings were affected). Im afraid they might get worse and might affect othe rplants i have..can you pls tell me what are they? i also noticed white lines on the cotyledons but they arent so bad to look at unike the ones on the leaves.

[DavidT]

That damage is caused by a pest called Leaf Miner. All you can do is remove infected leaves.

[Gevalia]

i researched on how an adult leaf miner looks like and i was so surprized that all this time the culprit was that huge " fly like" creature that was buzzing every afternoon around the zucchinis. i was not minding it at all since it didnt look harmful but next time i sees it i will crush it to death!

[Gevalia]

hello everyone!


updates for my zucchinis( its their 1month anniversary now,or shall i say monthsary?)




this is the zucchini that was sent to me by Shetty ( from this forum).its from Britain,and i placed it in the sunniest spot in the roof where it gets up 15hours of direct sunlight each sunny day....and its the best performing of all my zucchinis! it has the biggest leaves,with no trace of leaf miners,it has the biggest buds, and as early as now ( like the other zucchinis ) its bearing female buds! it has some vines ( i dunno how you call that,it has something that it probably uses for trellising or to hold on to trails but its a bush)


the other zucchinis are also doing great!

[Lesley Jay]

That's really great Gevalia!! It will not be long before you are eating your very first zucchini and they are gorgeous, so tasty!!

[Newtothis]

Gosh Gevalia you are doing really well there with your courgette plants. It's my first time with courgettes too and your pictures are giving me a good indication of what will happen to mine if I'm lucky. They were just planted out in a grow bag yesterday, and only have a few true leaves on them so far. Your staking is interesting, is that how I should have done it? Having never seen a courgette plant growing I staked mine the same as my tomatoes, with one of those grow bag frame things you put around the bag and then put a cane through. As they were a bit floppy in their pots I thought they might need support and having only one shot at putting the frames under the growbag I decided to go with it as it would be impossible after plants were in there. I can always take the canes out and just leave the open frame if needs be later.

Good luck with it all, I'm following your endeavours with great interest

[Gevalia]

Originally Posted by Newtothis

Gosh Gevalia you are doing really well there with your courgette plants. It's my first time with courgettes too and your pictures are giving me a good indication of what will happen to mine if I'm lucky. They were just planted out in a grow bag yesterday, and only have a few true leaves on them so far. Your staking is interesting, is that how I should have done it? Having never seen a courgette plant growing I staked mine the same as my tomatoes, with one of those grow bag frame things you put around the bag and then put a cane through. As they were a bit floppy in their pots I thought they might need support and having only one shot at putting the frames under the growbag I decided to go with it as it would be impossible after plants were in there. I can always take the canes out and just leave the open frame if needs be later.

Good luck with it all, I'm following your endeavours with great interest

Wow this is heartwarming!

honestly I'm not very sure about the staking i made. i reasearched about how most people do it and i reckon you did the right thing. in my case i had to do the stake that way because the winds in our rooftop is really very strong. really so strong. i guess this courgette just got used to the weather and adjusted itself well to the new climate ( see the 1st photo where its not doing well? i even thought it would die and i almost gave up on it but few day after exposure to extreme weather conditions the plant did so well, it developed shorter but stronger stalks, and very thick leaves compare to other courgettes i have that are on semi shaded site). sometimes pampering isnt the best way to care for plants

my only trouble now is if this cougette could get all the nutrients it needs from the soil to develop tha many fruits that it will have soon. i cehcekd this morning and it has 3-4 small female flowers aside from countless males.


more power to us

[Newtothis]

Wow it's all happening now with the flowers and all your side. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we both get a good crop, being novices, it's really interesting isn't it, seeing the new developments. What do you plan on feeding them with? I was figuring on tomato feed.

[Lesley Jay]

Hi to you both! I use an organic liquid seaweed feed but a tomato feed will be great!

[Newtothis]

Ah okay that's good to know...I have large stock of tomato feed but if I run out I can use the seaweed one I have for another plant.

I fed mine for the first time today, while I was feeding my tomatoes and peppers and just read in a book that you shouldn't feed until fruiting starts with courgettes, does it matter much?

[Gevalia]

i only use the usual NPK solutions....yeah i know im not being organic but its hard to find natural feeds here.....i also use calcium nitrate

[Gevalia]

btw the zucchini is growing really fast, yesterday the little fruit became shiny and striped, and the flower became yellow..im expecting it to bloom today.



question: can i hand pollinate them in the afternoon as i come home 2pm in the afternoon. i understand that the best time to do it is in the morning

[Gevalia]

and another question, how long does a zucchini flower remain viable? if it blooms today and i pollinate it this afternoon you think it will fruit? im at the office so cant do it now

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Gevalia, you have zucchini growing so the insects are doing their job! Hand pollination should be done early morning as the female flower starts to wilt and close later in the day. It is also done early morning to get there before the bees if you are growing more than one variety and want to save the seeds.

[Lesley Jay]

Originally Posted by Newtothis

Ah okay that's good to know...I have large stock of tomato feed but if I run out I can use the seaweed one I have for another plant.

I fed mine for the first time today, while I was feeding my tomatoes and peppers and just read in a book that you shouldn't feed until fruiting starts with courgettes, does it matter much?

Hi NTT, don't feed any of the plants (tomatoes, peppers, courgettes) until the fruits start to form as this causes the plants to grow plenty of lush green leaves but no fruit!

[Newtothis]

Some tomatoes are out already on one plant, that's why I thought I better start feeding, but not the other two in the grow bag so I should have probably waited.

The last couple of times I have grown tomatoes I fed when flowering before the fruits were set, as that's what it recommended on the grow bag. It's all a bit confusing really sometimes.

My new bible 'The Kitchen Gardener' by Alan Titchmarsh says you should feed while young plants are still in their pots, prior to planting out. Then after planting feed once a week until they start cropping and then it's twice a week. This was kind of new to me.

My peppers aren't flowering or fruiting as yet so I should have probably left them alone. But hey a bit more foliage won't be too bad

[Lesley Jay]

Hi NTT, I knew there was a thread on the forum about all leaves and no tomatoes. Here it is:-

non fruiting tomatoes in greenhouse

Some people start feeding when the flowers are out and other's (me included) wait until the small green tomatoes form. Sorry, but I don't agree with Mr.T. unless his plants have started flowering.

BTW I don't mean our Mr.T.!

[Newtothis]

What you're saying makes perfect sense I was surprised to read Mr. T's recommendations myself.

If I had a few of the same plants sown from seed I would be experimenting this year