PlantSowGrowHow to grow Courgette (Defender F1)
Cucurbita pepo
🥕 Vegetable
🌱 Grown each year
A compact, heavy-cropping green courgette with good resistance to cucumber mosaic virus — a reliable choice for small plots.
At a glance: Sow late April to mid May, harvest from mid June.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Courgette (Defender F1): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water generously at the base, never over the leaves
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 90 cm
- In pots
- Only in large containers
- Feeding
- A general feed before sowing or planting
- Harvest
- About 55 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Late April – mid May · 2 weeks after the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly in drills where they are to grow. Sow seeds on their edge, 2 cm deep.
- 5–10 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Early May
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 5–10 days. If sown outdoors, thin to 90 cm apart when big enough to handle.
- 40–61 days after “Plant Out” · Mid June – early July
Start Harvesting
Cut courgettes at 10–15 cm, every couple of days in summer, before they turn into marrows.
- 75–105 days after “Start Harvesting” · Late August – late September
Finish and Clear
Clear plants after the first frost.
