Sowing of squashes and courgettes

Where to sow squashes and courgettes?

Sowing squashes and courgettes is simple to carry out, and can be done in buckets or directly in the ground.

These are greedy vegetables that thrive in rich, loose, and deep soils. It is advisable to add a generous amount of compost of about 3 to 4 kg per m². This is a bulky crop: reserve a minimum area of one square metre per plant.

Courgette plant

When to sow squashes and courgettes?

Squashes and courgettes are sown:

– from mid-April to mid-May in warmth, indoors or under heated cover,

– from mid-May to mid-July directly in the ground.

How to sow squashes and courgettes?

You can prepare young plants to be installed in the vegetable garden once all risk of frost has passed or sow directly in place.

• Preparation of young plants:

– Fill pots or buckets with a good potting mix,
– Place two or three seeds per pot (preferably point down) by pushing them down to a depth of about 2 cm and cover with potting mix,
– Carry out a first watering, with light rain to avoid displacing the seeds.

Keep warm and in the light, at around 20 °C and maintain the substrate moist but not waterlogged until germination, which usually takes between 5 and 8 days. When the young plants are well developed, thin them out by keeping only the most vigorous seedling.

Young courgette plants ready to be repotted in buckets

• Sowing in open ground, directly in place (after mid-May):

Sowing is done in clusters, in weeded and loosened soil, spacing the plants one metre apart in all directions:

– Dig holes 2 to 3 cm deep using a dibber,
– Place three seeds per hole and cover with fine soil and lightly compact,
– Carry out a first watering, with light rain to avoid displacing the seeds,
– Keep the soil moist until germination.

After germination, when the young plants are well developed, thin them out to keep only the best plant from each cluster.

→ Learn more about sowing in clusters