{"id":120,"date":"2021-07-26T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aloland.v.paler.net\/2021\/07\/26\/courgette-vs-pumpkin\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T14:46:10","slug":"courgette-vs-pumpkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/courgette-vs-pumpkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Courgette vs Pumpkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although we tend to think of these two vegetables as being very different, and cooking\/eating them in distinct fashions, the reality is that they are both from the same family (gour<\/a>\/Cucurbitaceae), and genus (Cucurbita<\/em><\/a>). <\/em>So, in reality, they are quite similar.<\/p>\n

Courgette, also known as summer squash, zucchini, or even baby marrow, is available in many cultivars, bringing you a wide range of colours, shapes, growth rates and tasty options.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Pumpkins are a type of squash that can also be found in a wide variety of shapes, colours and sizes.<\/p>\n

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A round, small green pumpkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No wonder, it can be confusing if you are planting them nearby each other, and you are just starting to get some fruits.<\/p>\n

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Pumpkins and Courgettes growing together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, how can you tell them apart?<\/p>\n

The courgette plant presents leaves that are very serrated, and dark green. They can also have some patches that are almost silvery. At a more general level, the stems will be shorter and upward – this means that while the plant can take a lot of space, it will occupy a well-defined space.<\/p>\n

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Left: Courgette leaves, with silver patches and very serrated edges. Middle: branches are short, and grow almost vertically. Right: although yellow, this leaves shows its clearly serrated edges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A pumpkin plant will have equally large leaves, but they will be more rounded, and with a homogenous green. The stems are where the main difference relies on, though: this plant acts more like a vine, with stems crawling all over the floor. The room might be in one place, and you will find flowers over a meter away in each direction.<\/p>\n

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Left: Courgette leaves, spread out and bright green. Middle: Courgette stems, crawling on the floor. Right: Courgette leaf, with a smoother edge and more homogenous colour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If, like us, you planted different cultivars nearby each other you might end up trying to harvest a fruit from one plant only to realize it is coming from another one, much further away.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, you will find this information useful and make it easier to tell these two wonderful plants apart.<\/p>\n

If you are planting these plants, have a look at what companion plants<\/a> to grow with, so they grow healthy without the need for any nasty stuff.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although we tend to think of these two vegetables as being very different, and cooking\/eating them in distinct fashions, the reality is that they are both from the same family (gour\/Cucurbitaceae), and genus (Cucurbita). So, in reality, they are quite similar. Courgette, also known as summer squash, zucchini, or even baby marrow, is available in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1229,1230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homestead","category-permaculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32755,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/32755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}