One day when I was harvesting some zucchinis in my garden, I thought out about growing zucchini in hanging baskets. So the next day, I started researching about it and I took it to action. This article is all about growing zucchini in hanging baskets.
Here are some required conditions for growing zucchini in a hanging basket.
| Requirement | How much needed |
|---|---|
| Soil Ph and soil type | 6.5 Ph / Acidity soil |
| Sun | Full sun/ 7 hours a day |
| Water | 2 inches a week |
| Fertilizer | Compost & potting mix |
| Hanging basket size | 12 inches of diameter |
Actually, I was really successful with zucchini in hanging baskets. Therefore to know the exact right way to do it, and to have more helpful tips, keep reading.
Table of Contents
Hanging basket for growing zucchini
In order to grow hanging zucchini, you need to know about, why should you use baskets and what type of hanging baskets you need.
Here is it.
Why to use hanging baskets ?
Using hanging baskets to grow plants, will provide you handful of pros. So you will have the same advantages when you growing zucchini on them.
Let me explain you the most attractive advantages of them.
Getting rid of pests
When you are growing any kind of plant in the ground or a container at the ground level, your plant will be usually get hurt by pests like slugs, snails and bugs.
But when you plant your crop over the ground level, especially in hanging baskets, those kinds of pests are harder to reach the plant.
Even though, some mammals that might harm your crop, like Rabbits, Racoons and Skunks are also unable to reach your plant.
It’s a great win in the gardening world. Isn’t it?
No worries about soil
Just think about how much you need to consider the soil when you growing something in the ground.
Sometimes your backyard soil is rich with nothing. Maybe you have a backyard with a ground that is full with stones.
Also, you need to consider the acidity or alkaline quality of the soil. So these things may be dragging you out from starting your garden with a new crop.
Therefore using hanging baskets gives you a good opportunity to grow what you love without worrying about the soil.
For example, if you growing zucchini in hanging baskets, you can give the acidic soil conditions only for the hanging pot.
So it doesn’t matter how your garden soil is.
Easy to attend
When you grow zucchini or any plants in hanging baskets, they are hanging over nearly to your eye level.
So that will definitely makes you to attend the plant more easily.
Unless this method, think about how could you treat your plants when you grow them in the ground level.
I can see you are down on your knee. For me it is really hard to do for all of the plant in my garden.
Save the space
If you are in trouble with the space you’ve in your garden, now it’s your turn.
Maybe You don’t have enough space in the ground. But still, you’ve space in the air.
Because of that, you can grow a lot of outdoor growing vegetables like zucchini in hanging baskets in less space.
What hanging basket to use?
Actually, we are going to use hanging baskets to grow zucchini.
Zucchini is a vegetable that comes from the squash family. So it produces many leaves and also it has a large-scale root system.
So to grow zucchini, you have to use a hanging basket with at least 12 inches of diameter. Bigger the better.
Also it’s better, if that container has holes to drainage water.
Because zucchini is a vegetable that is often being hit by blossom end rot which happens due to overwatering.
Now you don’t have to worry about that hanging basket for more.
Because I found a one with 13 inches diameter and with drainage holes, to plant my zucchinis.
Luckily, you can still get it on the Amazon from here.
Soil for growing zucchini in a hanging basket
Like many of the vegetables in the Cucurbitacin family, the Zucchini plant also loves acidic soil.
They will perform with their best growth with the soil of 6.5 Ph value.
So we need to prepare the soil mix to grow zucchini in hanging baskets while keeping that in mind.
Let’s jump in to make the soil mix
Firstly, you have to find a bucket or a basin to prepare the soil mix.
This isn’t the container we use to grow hanging zucchinis.
Then you have to add some potting soil onto it. For zucchinis, any kind of general potting mix will be fine.
Because even zucchini plants grow bigger, they won’t beg you for fertilizers.
If you haven’t got any kind of potting soil, it’s all right. I find you the best general-purpose potting soil on amazon. Find it here.
If you love to make them on your own, this video will guide you.
Then you have to provide an acidic condition for the soil mix.
For that, you can simply mix some composts with the potting mix.
After completing the above two steps, it’s really good if you can add some slow-release fertilizers to the soil mixture.
Slow-release fertilizers are used to hold on to the nutrition of the soil for a long time.
They will be really helpful when growing whatever the vegetables in hanging baskets.
Because when you growing vegetables or fruits in hanging baskets, you can’t just add fertilized soil on them in the way you fertilizing on grounded plants.
So using a slow-release fertilizer makes the path for a long time run with growing hanging zucchini.
Now after mixing all the things, you are ready with the soil mix for growing zucchini in hanging baskets.
How to plant zucchini in the hanging basket?
Now you are ready with the hanging basket and the perfect soil mixture.
Next we are arriving to the most important part of this process, which is planting zucchinis.
Seeds or transplants
Always when you growing crops in the Cucurbitacin family, you have two planting options.
Those are sowing seeds or transplanting the plants.
So when you growing zucchini, you can use both methods without any problem even in hanging baskets.
But due to some general and environmental facts, I like to recommend you transplant zucchini plants in hanging baskets.
Here’s why.
Usually, we start growing zucchinis in the early spring. So if we start growing zucchini from seeds in this period, it will take some time to germinate and grow up.
But I know, you like to harvest your yield quicker.
Therefore you can sow zucchini seeds in the late winter season indoor and grow some little zucchinis.
Then as soon as the spring arrives, you can transplant them. That will make the process happens much faster.
Also, if you don’t like to sow seeds in the winter, you can find little zucchini plants for just 3 bucks in the early spring.
Set up the hanging basket
Now you are going to start growing zucchini plants in the hanging basket.
As the first step, add the soil mixture to the bucket until it fills up for 3/4.
Then add some of water on to it.
Now transplant your zucchini plant.
I won’t like to plant it on the right middle of the container. I prefer planting it between the center and the edge of the hanging basket.
When you plant the zucchini like that, their crops will jump out of the hanging basket. It will be look pretty nice.
Make sure that you are not growing more than two zucchinis in one container.
Then cover up the rest of the basket with soil. No matter if the soil is getting up to the level of initial seed leaves.
It’s just enough if you stop adding the soil 1″ before it hits the end level of the hanging basket.
mulching
Mulching is a great thing in growing vegetables and fruits.
However, even when you growing zucchinis in hanging baskets in the air, mulching is really helpful.
Here’s why.
Because the zucchini plant is hanging on the air, it’s facing the direct sunlight and the heat more than ever.
So when you are using mulch on the soil, it will work as a filter for the heat and sunlight.
Then it saves the soil and the roots of the zucchini plant.
And the other main advantage of using mulch is, it helps to keep the soil moisture healthy for plants.
So you can use fresh grass clippings, straw, wood chips as mulches when growing any kind of plant in a hanging basket.
Watering needs
As you know, zucchini is a crop that familiar with squash and cucumbers.
So they like warm conditions, but they can’t tolerate dry conditions too much.
Also, zucchini has big foliage, which can be caused to need more water.
Here’s the thing.
Normally zucchini plants need at least 1 inch of water per week. But when you growing zucchini in hanging baskets you have to provide at least 2 inches of water per week.
That’s because evaporation happens more quickly in hanging baskets with some factors like facing the wind and getting more sunlight.
Therefore watering the zucchini plant necessarily is so important.
Don’t just rely on some numeric measurements when watering your zucchini plants. Water them as much as possible considering the weather at that moment.
Also when the flowering season begins on your zucchinis, remember to treat them with more water.
It will help the plant with the process of fruiting.
Zucchini plant care in hanging baskets
Believe it or not, zucchini will treat you back with a huge harvest, if you care the well while you growing them.
So we have to look after them on some issues, and also we can improve their productive by focusing on some things.
Pollinating
This can be known as a very important and helpful process for increase the productive of crops.
Pollinating the zucchinis that you’re growing on hanging baskets, is a great way to increase the yield you’ll be going to have from it.
As I told before in this article, hanging baskets will have more windy conditions than others.
So your hanging zucchini plant also has a high probability you be naturally pollinated by the air.
But you can’t always trust that. So from mowing your best foot forward, do hand pollinating zucchini flowers.
It’s not that hard to do.
Just shake the flowers gently to spread the pollen grains and fall on the other flowers on the plant.
That will be turn non-productive flowers onto zucchinis.
Also, you can hang some flower plants near your zucchinis to attract some bees and butterflies near to that area.
Pests
I think you may get shocked once you saw this heading. Because I told you that many pests can’t reach hanging baskets.
But don’t forget, still harmful insects can reach your hanging zucchini.
Such as beetles, bugs and aphids, etc.
There are several ways that you can get rid of harmful insects on your zucchini plant.
1. Use ash to repel insects
One of the easiest way that you can get rid of that harmful pets and insects, is by sprinkling some ash on the plant.
It will make them harder to stay on the plant.
But there’s a catch:
Ash is highly alkalized. So do they can hurt the acidity of the soil in that hanging basket?
Maybe yes, or no. That’s depending on how much of ashes you are sprinkling on the soil.
Also because of the soil is trapped on a container, unlike on the ground, there is a chance to turn the soil in to neutral or alkaline if you put more ash in to the soil of an hanging basket.
Therefore, you have to sprinkle ash not targeting the soil, put them on the leaves and stems.
I have written a full article about the facts of do wood ashes repel insects. Recommend you to read it.
2. Hang insect repelling plants
Growing insect repelling plants to get rid of unwanted insects, is a popular and a successful method in farming and gardening.
So why don’t you use it to repel insects when growing zucchinis in hanging baskets?
There are several flowers and vegetables that can help with this insect repelling process for zucchinis.
Here are some examples to it.
- Rosemary
- Lavender
- Basil
- Mint
- Catnip
Here are a list of insect repelling plants to grow next to hanging zucchinis.
And the most attractive thing is, these plants are easier to grow on hanging baskets more than any other.
Also they will add a nice looking to your garden while doing their main job!
3 . Use a Pesticide
Actually, I recommend you to do this, if your zucchini plant is heavily attacked by insects or if you can’t see any of success with above two methods.
You can sprinkle the pesticide on the leaves of zucchinis on every 3 days.
If you haven’t got a pesticide yet, don’t worry. Here’s the way you can make it your own.
Now you know that how to care zucchinis from pests, when growing them in hanging baskets.
And also if you like, you can read USDA guidelines about pests management on plants, to know their definition on it.
Weather
When you caring the zucchinis on hanging baskets, weather is also a fact that you should have to consider about.
Zucchini is a warm loving plant. So you should expose it to the full sun or provide at least 7 hours of sunlight per day.
As well as providing warm conditions to the zucchini plant, you have to protect it from heat waves in the summer.
Therefore, keeping hanging zucchini plants in partial shade on summer, will protect them from heat waves.
Also, when there’s blowing wind faster, don’t hang them anymore.
Keep them on the ground until the wind and the weather becomes normal.
Where to install the hanging basket?
Now everything is ready for growing zucchinis in a hanging basket. But where you can hang it?
You have to install the hanging basket with the zucchini plant in a location that getting at least 7 hours of sunlight a day.
For example, you can hang the basket up the roof of the corridor or in the wall.
You can hang any of the plants you grow in containers, on a wall, post or anywhere in the air by using a hanging basket bracket that sells on Amazon.
Personally, I using a hanging basket stand to make things happen neatly and beautifully. And it saves me a lot of time.
Also, I can move my all the hanging zucchini plants all at once from one place to another when using this stand.
If you don’t mind just have a look at the hanging basket stand I use.