It’s always a good idea to nick off any broken stems, or dead or damaged leaves, from bushy zucchini plants, the same way you would for vining varieties. But clean scissors are ample for this occasional summer gardening chore. If you have other vegetable vines and perennial flowers that will need pruning, these are excellent to have on hand.
Snip its haircuts manual#
You may want to invest in a manual hand pruner to use for this task, like the Felco F-2 pruners, a favorite among gardeners. Keep in mind that these branches produce the squash you’ll harvest to eat, so each cut means fewer fruits.Īlso, be sure to leave behind enough foliage to shade the developing squash. Trim off the side shoots, not the main stem, using clean scissors. You can prune vining zucchini varieties the same way you would a climbing or trailing winter squash. If a stalk supporting a sickly or infested leaf is also yellow, cut it away, leaving an inch remaining at the base of the plant.Īlso, prune the vines if you notice they’re beginning to spread farther than you’d like. The French variety ‘Elite,’ for example, has a bushy, upright habit with smaller leaves.Īnother option is ‘Golden Zebra,’ a hybrid with fruits that are easier to spot than the typical dark green types. If you space them properly in the first place, you’re less likely to need to cut dead or damaged leaves from the plants or to have to trim here and there to give the plants better air circulation or access to ample sunlight.Īnd if you’ve felt like you needed to cut back leaves later in the season so you could more readily spot the fruits to pick in the past, prevent that outcome by choosing a variety promoted as “easy to pick.” Summer squash that doesn’t have enough room for the leaves to dry out after rain can easily develop powdery mildew or a host of other zucchini diseases. Check your seed packet for final spacing recommendations, but count on needing at least two feet between plants and maybe as much as four feet.
Seeds for ‘Golden’ are available from Eden Brothers in packets and in bulk.Īlso, be sure to give the bushes ample space to grow.
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