Black Beauty
Cheap, widely sold and open pollinated, so you can save your own seed. Slightly later than the hybrids.
Black Beauty is the courgette most people picture: very dark, almost black-green, straight, glossy and slightly ribbed at the shoulders. It is an old American variety that has been in catalogues for the best part of a century, it is open pollinated so you can save your own seed, and the packet costs a fraction of an F1. The trade off is that it starts a little later and carries no disease resistance.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Cucurbita pepo
- Type
- Heirloom
- Category
- Green, bush
- Difficulty
- Easy, good first crop
- Hardiness
- Tender, no frost tolerance
- In Ireland
- Cloche or fleece helps
- Germination
- 5 to 10 days at 18 to 25C
- Sowing depth
- 2cm
- Spacing
- 90cm apart, 120cm between rows
- Height
- 60cm
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 10 to 14 weeks
- Harvest
- July to September
Sowing and harvest calendar for Black Beauty
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Black Beauty courgette seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Order online
- Brown Envelope Seeds Irish Organic seed grown and saved in West Cork Grows and saves its own certified organic seed in West Cork, so the varieties are already adapted to Irish conditions. Visit Brown Envelope Seeds , Co. Cork
- Seedaholic Irish Heirloom specialist with long growing notes on every packet Family run in Clonbur since 2005, deep heirloom range with detailed growing notes on every packet. Visit Seedaholic , Co. Galway
- Quickcrop Irish Ships across Ireland, sowing months on every listing Ballymote based, lists sowing and harvest months per product and ships across Ireland. Visit Quickcrop , Co. Sligo
Why it suits Ireland
Black Beauty is a bush courgette that crops steadily rather than spectacularly, and in an Irish summer steady is usually what you get anyway. It is one of the most widely sold varieties in the country, so seed is easy to find, cheap, and available from the Irish organic growers as well as the big chains.
The honest caveat is that it has no virus resistance and no particular mildew tolerance. In a garden where cucumber mosaic virus has struck before, an F1 like Defender is a safer bet. In a clean garden, this performs perfectly well.
The real argument for it here is seed saving. Seed from a plant grown and ripened in Irish conditions is seed already selected, slightly, for Irish conditions, and after a few seasons of saving from your best plant you have something better adapted than anything in a packet.
Growing notes
Sow on edge in a 9cm pot in late April or early May, and do not rush it outside. Black Beauty starts cropping a week or so later than the earliest hybrids, so a checked plant sitting in cold ground costs you real harvest time.
Allow a full 90cm to 1m each way. The plant makes a lot of leaf and a crowded Black Beauty is a mildew problem waiting to happen.
Pick at 10 to 15cm, when the skin is glossy and the fruit still feels heavy for its size. Fruit left to swell go pale, seedy and watery well before they reach marrow size. If you intend to save seed, choose one fruit on one plant for that job and keep cutting everything else.
Common questions
How do I save seed from Black Beauty?
Leave one fruit on the plant until it has swollen into a hard-skinned marrow that you cannot dent with a thumbnail, which takes most of the rest of the season, then cut it and leave it somewhere dry for a few weeks before scooping the seed out, rinsing and drying it. Be aware that courgettes cross freely with other Cucurbita pepo, which includes most summer squash, pumpkins and courgettes, so if a neighbour is growing something else nearby the seed may not come true. Also expect the plant to stop producing once you let a fruit mature.
Is Black Beauty better than an F1 courgette?
Not in raw performance. The F1s crop a little earlier, more uniformly and often carry virus resistance. Black Beauty wins on cost, on seed saving and, in the opinion of a lot of growers, on the flavour and texture of the flesh. If you only have room for one plant and want the most courgettes, choose an F1. If you want to keep the variety going year after year, choose this one.
Does the dark colour mean anything?
Only for the cook. The very dark skin looks good and holds up well when sliced and griddled, and it makes the fruit easy to spot among the leaves, which is more useful than it sounds when you are trying to pick everything before it turns into a marrow.
More courgettes to consider
Defender F1
AGMF1 hybrid / Green, bush
The safe choice. Early, heavy and virus resistant, which matters more here than flavour ever will.
Growing notes and stockistsSoleil F1
F1 hybrid / Yellow, bush
Grow one yellow alongside a green one. Easy to spot among the leaves, which means fewer accidental marrows.
Growing notes and stockistsTromboncino
Heirloom / Climbing, pale green
For growers with a tunnel or a warm sheltered wall. Climbs out of slug reach and shrugs off mildew, but it needs a long season.
Growing notes and stockists