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:: Cucumbers ::
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07.08.07 ::
I didn't
plant any cucumbers last year and I really missed having them in the
garden. This year I did a really good job of getting most of the winter
vegetables started on time. However I got busy with work and hit a time
crunch when it came to getting the summer veggies
planted.
I went to the garden center to get seedling starts but the plants I bought turned out to be crookneck squash instead of cucumbers. Then when I went back again to buy cucumbers nothing was left.
Desperate, I went to Lowes to see if they had anything and found three tiny wilted seedlings stuck out on their clearance racks. I purchased them even though they looked dreadful. Two of them died right away, but this one is hanging in there.
It
lived! The one little Gherkin
cucumber vine I planted finally took off after a very late and bumpy
start. At
first the blooms were clumped up and small and the plant had tiny
shriveled fruits all crowded together. They looked like mutant midgets.
A lot of them turned brown, shriveled up, or just plain dropped off the
vine. I didn't have much hope for it. In fact, I was going to pull it
up and just be done with it but I got busy and couldn't find time to
work out in the garden, so I just left it there and figured it would
eventually die.
Good thing I ignored it because it finally started to grow! To my amazement it has produced about 10 good size cucumbers and there are still a couple babies on the vine. A few of them were kind of an odd shape, but they tasted great.
I think it's about to loose its momentum though; there haven't been any new blooms lately and each day it looks weaker and more shriveled. I really am surprised it lasted this long and put out anything at all since it was a "toss away" seedling. Never underestimate the power of a plant to grow. I am also learning that the more I just leave things alone, the better off they usually are at surviving.
Good thing I ignored it because it finally started to grow! To my amazement it has produced about 10 good size cucumbers and there are still a couple babies on the vine. A few of them were kind of an odd shape, but they tasted great.
I think it's about to loose its momentum though; there haven't been any new blooms lately and each day it looks weaker and more shriveled. I really am surprised it lasted this long and put out anything at all since it was a "toss away" seedling. Never underestimate the power of a plant to grow. I am also learning that the more I just leave things alone, the better off they usually are at surviving.
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06.13.07 ::I didn't
plant any cucumbers last year and I really missed having them in the
garden. This year I did a really good job of getting most of the winter
vegetables started on time. However I got busy with work and hit a time
crunch when it came to getting the summer veggies
planted. I went to the garden center to get seedling starts but the plants I bought turned out to be crookneck squash instead of cucumbers. Then when I went back again to buy cucumbers nothing was left.
Desperate, I went to Lowes to see if they had anything and found three tiny wilted seedlings stuck out on their clearance racks. I purchased them even though they looked dreadful. Two of them died right away, but this one is hanging in there.
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06.27.05 ::More
cucumbers are getting ready to
pick! The Burpless
and the really long (!) Soyu cucumbers
are growing now. I had to
remove a couple of them because they were
deformed but the new ones are looking good so far...
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06.21.05 ::
The
cucumbers
are starting to develop...yeah! I have had three good size
Gherkin’s
already. The larger cucumber plants started
getting
cucumbers when they were
still young, too
early for
the plants since they weren't large enough to support the new
growth. I was advised to pinch them off and let
the
vines get bigger before letting the
cucumbers
grow. They are just now getting their second round of
blooms.
The Gherkins
have done really well
and I
had my first cucumber sandwich of the summer
with fresh
herbs from my garden.
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05.14.05 ::
Wow, a baby Soyu cucumber starting already!
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05.9.05 ::
The
cucumber plants were put in the ground the last week of April (nursery
plants) and the first week in May (Brian's seedlings). They are planted
along the trellis and
are doing pretty good so far. I have already noticed that
they are slightly taller after all the rain we had this weekend. A
few of the plants that Brian gave me, the Soyu cucumbers, already have
yellow blooms on them. I will post updates as
they progress.
