Which cukes are you growing this summer?

Plastic deer fencing works great, too, and it's ez to work with.

Hey Sequee, how are the whites growing? I can't wait to hear how they taste...

Divas finally in here; with a few friends to join them in a salad.

And looking mighty tasty, I must say!

Not only do the diva cukes look awesome, but so do the green zebra tomatoes.

kanita

Very nice dmj!
Where I am at, I will be getting the early tomatoes at the beginning of July so I have early cukes (Sweet Success), but no maters yet. Can't wait!! I will be getting Tasty Jade probably around the same time as the early tomatoes (Tasty Jade has no cukes or even flowers at this point but is getting close to having some buds...)

tmm

I ended up with a bit of a change here...instead of: Miniature White, Lemon-Apple, National Pickling, and Poona Kheera; I have Lebanese White Barrow Bush, Lemon-Apple, National Pickling,and Spacemaster. the Miniature White were very good last year - I hope I like the Lenanese as well! Will let you know once I'm munching on them! Can hardly wait!

Lemon Apple??? Where'd you get those?

Sequee, I sent you some Lebanese white bush marrow... They are zucchini :)

Which would definitely explain why they ended up where they are. I was surprised when I looked through my notes and found a cuke where a zuke was supposed to be!!!

kanita - look at the link tombaak provided above for Plants of the Southwest. These seeds germinated really well and haven't been devoured by the blasted bugs as have so many of the seedlings in the "south forty". I guess that's a drawback of planting in a new area. It's been cut into a wild area and everything is getting eaten away early on. And the seedlings are so young that any blast of insecticide is killing them off. ~:-( Hopefully enough will survive to give me a tasting. As luck would have it, the bugs seems especially fond of the long beans seedlings. I've lost more than half of them, and I'm thinking it may be too late to replant - though what do I really have to lose?

The tomatoes are doing great, though. I have one plant with cherries that should be ripe in a few days. Won't that be nice (while I watch the other babies bite the dust!)

I've also got some 'Orient Express' on the side of the house about 4' tall--can't get a pic right now--lawn dudes are out their mowing.
Debbie

Just wanted to tell you all that I have been harvesting my Tasty Jade. I have uploaded a photo on PlantFiles also. Compared to Sweet Success, the fruit is skinnier, longer and a little more pale (less green but more yellowish). They taste as good as Sweet Success. Also in comparison to Sweet Success, Tasty Jade grows many secondary branches while Sweet Success doesn't, so the Tasty plants are going all over the place now. Sweet Success started to get fruit something like 3 weeks before Tasty Jade.

My backyard looks like a jungle now with those cuke plants (8 in 2 EB's) and tons of tomato plants in EBs/containers. I can hardly get to the water intake pipe/tube to fill the reservoirs for some of them. It's for sure I overdid it this year in my small yard.... I am getting something like 4-6 cukes every day that now I have Tasty Jade starting to fruit in addition to Sweet Success... I hardly harvested any cukes last year, so I really shouldn't complain, plus cukes are easier to give away than zukes for sure!

How are YOU guys doing with your cuke plants?


tmm

Two rounds of my cuke seedlings were devoured by birds, so up went the netting and now I have some Armenian, Orient Express, Marketmore, and Lemon thriving with several true leaves. Now that the weather has heated up (finally) I'll start to realize some actual growth!

I had three Diva seeds from a friend of mine, but these were sadly consumed :( so I'll have to try them next time.

I'm growing big burpless, suyo long and a pickling cuke, the seeds were from a friend who forgot the name. I'd grow lemon and tasty jade too, but I don't have room this year.
We had a cold, rainy spell, and so far only big burpless is blooming.

I love to eat cucumber slices with little bits of smoked salmon on top, as if they were crackers.

Smoked salmon on top of cucumber slice sounds great. I am running out of recipe ideas here with so many cukes to eat. Yesterday I made some cuke salad with tomatoes, red peppers, basil, and capers (Barefoot Contessa recipe), but only used two cukes.

tmm

My first time trying cukes-don't know why, because I love them (sliced thin, w/ rice vinegar & kosher salt, on top of a greek grilled cheese sandwich)! I have Tasty Jade, planted next to split rail fence (w/ wire fencing against it for the dog). We've gotten at least 9+" of rain in the last 24 hours, it's still raining, no flooding yet, but it's definitely a deluge!

Ihear ya. When the sun poked it's nose out this am I got s splitting headache - just was NOT expecting it after days and days and days of rain.

My cukes aren't doing much of anything. Drat!

am growing:

Marketmore - Harvesting 2-3 cukes daily 8-9inches long. Earthbox

Poinsett 76 - Also harvesting daily, and I like the poinsett more than the market more, as the skin is thinner and the cucumber more light and crisp in texture. Earthbox

Milano Slice - Lots of smalle cukes, haven't harvested yet
Sugar Crunch - Picking daily. I like them, but they don't necessarily taste all that sweet to me, although they do have the most wonderful "melon" aroma when you cut one open, more so than my other cukes.

West Indian Gherkin - Still growing, but no flowers yet, let alone fruit.

National Pickling - Great standard for pickles. Lots growing on only 2 plants.
Boston Pickling - Tons of flowers and babies (growing in self-watering pot from Walmart.)

Snow's Pickling - Same as Boston
Lemon Cucumber - Lots of round cukes, have yet to cut them off, but will have to definitely on Saturday.

That's it so far.

Very nice kanita :-)
Which cukes are in the photo?

How are you eating the cucumbers? I have 8 plants - 4 sweet success and 4 tasty jade. I am running out of steam here and giving away alot. (Cukes are definitely easier to give away than zukes!)

tmm

Tmm- The photo is of national pickling. I made a big Thai cucumber salad, gave half dozen to my aunt and the other half dozen to my neighboor. I also made a cucumber-citrus-mint salad, I add cucumbers to my drinking water (which is really refreshing). Oh yeah, fresh pickles, but you have to eat them right away.

I should mention that I was lucky enough to have a family reunion on Sunday, in which everybody had to bring something, so of course it was the perfect opportunity for me to use up most of the cucumbers that had to be harvested last week. Everyone was so tickled to be eating cucumber salads made with cucumbers I have grew.

Kanita,

Very nice! You got to put your photo on PlantFiles (there is no fruit photo for this cultivar on PlantFiles).

Anyway, good that you are making use of just about all your cukes. My mom is coming to visit in a week for 3 weeks, so we should be able to find ways to consume most of our cukes once she arrives. It's great you are trying varieties of cuke recipes. I made some asian kind of cuke salad last night and it was pretty good. I gotta try the thai cuke salad recipe (I saw one on Recipe thread... is that the one you used?).

tmm

I used the recipe in my Thai cookbook, but I am pretty sure they are almost the same. I am waiting for enough pickling cukes to start making my pickles.

Here are the first cukes from my garden! Straight eights!!! I'm so proud!

You should be proud Noobie, those are beautiful cucumber!

Thanks, Kanita! I am proud and thankful to God that He has blessed me with a garden!

WOW! Those are awesome!!! Good job!

I hear you noobie. Nature is just so amazing isn't it. Huge fruit from a tiny little seed.
Very nice straight eights!

tmm

I think that's the reason I grow from seed. God's miracle...from a tiny seed grows a tree! What better proof of the power of life?

I'm growing stonewall: http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront/44a59cfb029ce64e273fcf366ce3071b/Product/View/147L&2D1

This is my first time with this variety (and it looks like I'm the only one in this post). The disease resistance and all-female high productivity plants really appealed to me. I don't have a muture fruit yet, so I can't rate them for taste. The vines are doing well.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2006 2:57 PM

I planted pickling cucumbers but many are now coming off the vine with a bitter taste? We've had some days much hotter than normal...not sure if this is the cause.

I have been told that hot weather makes some cucumbers bitter. There are some varieties that are not affected by the heat, though. I haven't grown too many cucumbers to verify for myself but that's what I've heard.

Tir_ Some pickling cuke have a bitter taste normally which are the ones mostly used for sweet pickles, also irregular watering will make many cukes bitter tasting.

kanita

Our first - Marketmore 97 grown in a bag of peat moss and fertilized with fish emulsion and chicken manure.

Salem - thats so awesome! I never thought of doing that. How big of a bag of peat did you use? Are you growing anything else this way?

Kanita, that is a large bale of peat moss that I had sitting since last summer. I had an extra cuke start, and so I thought to give it a try. They have outgrown other cukes so far, and gave the first fruit.

Who woulda thought.

WOW!

'shoe mentioned that he does that sometimes - I always thought it was a great idea. Isn't it amazing what we can come up with when we put our minds to it. I ran out of room so I am growing my winter squash and melons on the compost pile!

Yours looks wonderful! I'm impressed. I hope I get something this year. Cukes have not been my strong suit so far, but Mom used to have them coming out of our ears. I'm surprised we didn't grow to hate them!

I just noticed a bunch of babies, maybe 3/4", on my National Picklers - pleeeeeeeeeeease keep your fingers crossed for me!

This message was edited Jul 9, 2006 7:31 PM

Sequee - LOL...I think I'm starting to (hate cucumbers)

Hi all...well despite the beating all my EB cucumbers took from all the storms of two weeks ago I've retied them to my trellises and even with all the torn and browned leaves they are doing well much to my surprise. This is my harvest of today. The large ones are Park's All-Season Burpless and the picklers are Amour except the one top right which is Patio Pickles that I have growing in a small self watering pot.

Rich

Rich,

That is very nice! About the All-Season Burpless, do they taste as good as Sweet Success? Are they shaped just about the same? I have Sweet Success and Tasty Jade and both are very productive and tasty, but I think I will do Sweet Success next year, but not Tasty Jade (Tasty Jade start giving fruit almost 3 weeks later than Sweet Success, and I don't like the color of the cukes as much - they are sometime pale yellow green instead of the dark green of Sweet Success). I would like to try All-Season Burpless (as well as Sweet Success) if they are as good as Sweet Success and they are shaped similer, since All-Season Burpless is supposed to be more productive. (I pick my Sweet Success rather small - the size of a Japanese cuke and that's the way I like it.) and I want to lower the number of cuke plants next year.

tmm