Armenian Cukes

This was my success story for 2001

They are actually a variety of melon I learned last year. They taste, just like cucumbers. They do not get bitter even incredibly overgrown and apparently do not get woody or tough, make great pickles, are great raw, do not need to be peeled to eat and Mom didn't burp or get indigestion as a result of eating them.

The down side is they need a LOT of room. I mean those vines go forever. I think the 2 plants we grew last year (going the same direction) took up a good 20'X 5' area of the field. It wasn't a problem cause their only competition were gourds. I'm confident they would do well on a trellis and that would help you get straight fruits.

Cool! Would like to try some of those. Are they attractive to bugs? Like cuke beetles? Or since they are melons are squash bugs and the like attracted to them? (I've just about given up over the years growing many cukes due to the bugs/virii.) Course now, last yr I had great luck early in the year planting some bush cuke plants and surrounding them with "Love Lies Bleeding"...the beetles were attracted to it and stayed away from the cuke plants for several months. But, alas, once the beetle population increased tremendously they discovered the cuke plants and showed no signs of being polite what-so-ever.
Gonna check the database for your Armenian Cukes dsrtgdn.
Thanks

Shoe, I can't answer that with certainty. They are less attractive to bugs than others of the same species that's for certain. Squash bugs are outta control here but they didn't seem to notice the A Cukes at Dad's. Then again they haven't found Dad's at all yet....too busy eating my squash over here.

If you decide you'd like to try em, send me your snail mail to grdnobssd@aol.com I'll send you a few seed.

The best part was...long after my little cuke plants fried the Armenians were kicking into high gear with production. We actually had the original too many cucumbers last year.

Way cool! Thanks! Email enroute! Can't wait to try them!

I tried them a couple yrs. ago. If you let them grow to 3 ft., as advertised, they are hollow and inedible. They are edible at 18 inches length. Just my experience.

Wow,those sound really neat.
Never tried that kind before.

Oblam,

I never got any that were 3ft so I really can't compare notes on that one. However, I did get some 2+feet that were at least 5" across at the widest point. They were in the melon patch and just didn't get seen. Dad was skeptical but I'll try anything once (so far). DH and Son were the guinea pigs.

The cukes were just beginning a cavity in the center of the seed section. More of a seperation. At that size we still loved em. They still were crisp and tender eaten raw with or without the skin. The flavor was still cucumbery and slightly sweet. The main difference was a slightly drier flesh. They were excellent for pickles at this point. (Way too much cucumber to just eat). We had, cucumber soup, cucumber relish, cucumber and tomatos, cucumber pickles (dill spears and chunks, bread and btr slices, and chunky relish).

I'll have to let some grow as big as they want this year and see if they ever get inedible to our taste.

Chris

Rec'd the seeds, Chris. Thanks. By the way, will these things climb? Or just sprawl all over the place?

I didn't train them up Shoe, but I'm certain they will. They definitly would have to if I grew them over here. At Dad's place there is plenty of room, so it wasn't an issue.

I would treat them like large melons. The fruits were quite heavy at their biggest, but I've grown melons on a trellis that got pretty big and also large gourds, they did fine.

They would need a strong support system to handle the weight.

I hope they do well for you, but more I hope you like them.

I will post how the Betty's White does here in the desert :)
Chris

Great! Thanks. (Course now, I finally went back and read your first post...20 X 5 ft area. Yep, them things really go! I'll plant some on a fence and other in the wide open.
Betty's White should do well in ya'lls heat (that's okra for those of you who don't know). Will be watching this thread.