Does anyone stake or cage their zucchini plants? Mine are sprawling and growing out of control. Every couple of days it seems like they double in size. Also, I think I planted too many. The instructions said to plant 3 plants per hill, which is what I did & I have two separate hills. Should I dig some up? They leaves as you all know are so huge that they are covering other vegetables I have growing, especially my bell peppers.
thanks - kanita
I've never caged or trellised mine, although I do believe some people do.
Next time around, buy varieties that state that they are "bush" types. Little to no vining, very compact, same amount of fruit.
Thanks Breezy
Your welcome. To be honest, unless there's some sort of heirloom squash variety I really want to try that doesn't come in a bush type, I only grow the bush types these days. Like you said - they really take over the garden.
I sort of controlled mine using this green plastic "bean and pea" net product that is a type of netting stuff that you would put against a fence or something and your peas would grow up it. Well, I made a sort of frame over the raised bed with my squash/zucchini plants and then I put the green net stuff across the bed at intervals. It doesn't completely prevent the leaves from going through the holes of the netting, but when they do, they're still young and small and I can push them back. The netting holds the plants in their rows. It also prevents them from going all over the other plants. It's sort of a "soft control" method, but it is working for me for this year. I think next year I will plant further apart though.
Here is a link to what I used but it's a link to a UK outfit. I got mine here in Iowa at our garden centre, same box.
http://www.gardensupplydirect.co.uk/?productID=22&op=catalogue-product_info-null&prodCategoryID=113
Thanks cmoxon, I was wondering if I could "build" something using the 5' stakes and netting I bought a while ago.
