I’m not sure what compelled me to pick up a packet of zucchini seeds in July this summer. I’ve had a useable garden for 7 years now and never did it occur to me that I could use it to grow my own food. Especially in Dubai, an urban desert, I always thought you would require specific greenhouse conditions to grow any form of fruit or vegetables in the region.
I read one or two articles before sowing the seeds and came to the false assumption that Zucchini is a prolific plant and grows well in full-sun with little or no specific feeding conditions. I was under the impression that all one had to do was sow a few seeds in a well-watered area and come back in a few months to pluck fully ripe zucchini for our Winter BBQS. That is definitely NOT the case. 4 months later, I’ve realized that there is a lot more to vegetable gardening.
Things I didn’t know before sowing zucchini seeds:
- Full July summer sun in Dubai is not the same as a full summer sun in most places in the West.
- Better to sow zucchini seeds straight in the garden unless you have the ability to be really delicate and gentle when transplanting the seedlings. I clearly don’t have these skills.
- Zucchini is a heavy feeder and requires fertilizing regularly. Actually, most vegetable plants require feeding. Seems like common sense now. :S
- You can not just dig three inches of soil and plant anything. The quality of your soil will determine the growth of your plants. We haven’t changed our soil since we first moved in and our soil is basically very sandy with very little nutrients in it. You need to invest in new soil before starting any gardening project.
- Do not sow all the seeds in the packet at the same time. Again, seems like common sense now. After seeing the first set of seeds germinate within a few days ( Zucchini seeds are VERY FAST germinators), I excitedly sowed all the others :S.
- Do not rely on your gardener and automatic sprinkler system to know the needs of your zucchini plants for you. You need to build your drip and sprinkler irrigation system to water your plant at specific times. By October, the 3x a day sprinkler sytem was overwatering the zucchini plants and I had to figure out how to configure the sprinkler system for the cooler temperatures. I previously relied on our gardener to do this.
I sowed the first seeds in the last week of July and some plants died or failed to grow, the few that were remaining were thriving until I came back from my two week US trip in late-October and found them all wilting or dead. I now have one left from the 25 plants I had earlier. Sad life.
I guess I’ll try again next year.
Sowed First week of August
First week of September
Third week of September – After transplanting from original pot
There was so much hope :'(.
End of October – Early November – when everything started going downhill 😦
All the leaves were yellowing and the plants were getting too leggy with only one major stem. Anyway, they had died and wilted once I came back from my break and my gardener blamed it on the change of temperature :0 – Why would better weather cause all my plants to wilt?
Narmeen Naser - Artist 