Cucumber Recommendations

[feraltomatoes]

Angelique, you will have plenty of time for those cukes. In fact I bet you will have them to eat all of sep. and oct.

[angelique]

Hi Brad,

Now you make me wish that I bought more cuke seeds. You also make me wish I had more land. If only my family would have kept their prime acreage in Roseville or bought in Auburn, Newcastle, Rocklin or Granite Bay when it was still affordable. Oh well.

Angelique

[Adenn1]

Angelique:

I would be happy to share some Poona Keera seeds with you. I guess you can save the seeds just like tomatoes? Will have to do some research on this...

Brad's right...you will be fine and will probably have more cukes than you know what to do with.

I noticed that a few of the early fruit on my Boothby are turning yellow and dying...looked closely and found that I only have one male flower on the plant...so I suspect the fruit is dying because it was not pollinated? Will have to try some manual pollinating.

This is my first year trying Costata R.--could you tell me how big your plant is...and I alway heard this variety is a monster...hope I gave it enough room.

[angelique]

Hi There,

Thank you for the generous offer. I would love to try Poona Keera.

My Costata R. (2 plants combined) are about 4x4 ft (at least) and about two ft high. So far, I have only eaten one squash from this variety. It seems this variety is know for providing a lot of male flowers. I just might give in and make some stuffed fried squash flowers. It's not all bleak, I do see a few babies on the plant.

DH and Dbrother always joke that there are snakes hiding in my squash plants. The cocozelle is even more monsterous.

I hope this helps.

Angelique

P.S. I don't think that either variety likes the intense Sacto. heat. The leaves wilt dramatically with our 90+F weather. By evening (at least dusk), they are back to normal.

[Tomstrees]

not sure of I wrote it before ...
but Diva (hybrid) has been great for me
and my tastes/area ~

Tom

[shelleybean]

Angelique,

Two patty pans I love are Golden Bush Scallop and Benning's Green Tint. You can get both at Southern Exposure. They both have small seeds when picked at 3-4 inches. Both produce smallish, tidy bushes. One of my favorite summer dishes is the Golden Bush Scallop breaded and fried. Yum!

[angelique]

Hi Michele,

Thank you for the suggestions. I am going to give Benning's Green Tint a try next year. I have always loved pale colored pan squashes. I don't know why but yellow and darker green pans squashes don't appeal to me. This must be some strange childhood hang up.

I love pan squash fried too. I especially love it in good old fashion chicken vegetable soup (Mexican style) and cut in half, steamed, covered with an Italian herb blend, garlic, diced tomatoes and LOTS of cheese.

Angelique

[Adenn1]

Thought I would post a picture of my cukes...the trellis on the ritght has Poona Keera and Burpee Hybrid II...the one on the left has Boothby's Blonde and Marketmore 76. I have some small fruit that should be ready to pick in a week or so...no more paying 79 cents for small cuke from the store.

[angelique]

Hi Adenn1,

Wow those look beatiful. If you don't mind, I have a few questions. This is my first year growing cukes, so I really do need a lot of advice.

How big are the cages? (diameter and height)
How many plants in each cage?
How far apart are each cage?

Thank you for your help.

Angelique

[Adenn1]

Angelique:

The cages are 6'-7' tall...home made out of fencing I got at Home Depot. They are roughtly 26-28" in diameter and they are spaced about 2' apart.

I have two plants of each variety around the cages (so four total plants around one cage). I put the plants about 12" apart.

It is hard from the picture to tell which one is which. Burpee is a very vigorous plant...and one that I may have to trim back a bit to keep it from overwhelming Poona Keera

Happy to answer any other questions...hope this helps.

Adenn

[angelique]

Here's a partial picture of cuke row. Sorry my backyard is such a mess. At the far end to closest:



1-jelly melon (the other two died during transplant)
3-Armenian
2-lemon
3-Greek
2-Miniture White (starting to vine, but should be bush).

and finally two Yellow Midget Watermelon (not visible).

All of the plant groupings are about 30" apart. As you can see, they are still just baby.

BTW, there are beans starting to sprout between each grouping. My grandmother visited a few days ago and asked me NOT to kill the purslane (aka YUCKY HORRID WEED).

[giardiniere]

The Homemade Pickle cucumbers that I planted this year are doing real well. They're very vigorous growers. I picked the first one last night, and four more tonight. We got 3½"-4" of rain Saturday, so the garden is a little too soft to wander around in it too much.

BTW angelique, I picked my first Costata Romanesco last night. We had it tonight for dinner. It was scrumptious!!!

[Adenn1]

Had my first cucumber of the season last night...first to hit my salad was a nice 9" Burpee II Hybrid (have four more that will be ready anyday now...and more coming!)

Very good flavor and was a hit with my wife...who did notice a difference from the cukes coming from the store. Will also be picking some Boothby's very soon.

Meant to take a picture...will get some our shortly...that is if it stops raining here

[Adenn1]

Some pictures of my first cucumbers...to the right are Burpee Hybrid II and to the left are Boothby's Blonde. The blonde's are a bit smaller than I would normally pick them...but with recent rains...I grabbed what I could and ran back into the house!

[angelique]

I ate my first Miniture White Cucumbers. They were great. They are mild and not super sweet, but they are the perfect size for snacking (about 2") without peeling. They are super early.

A few days ago, my dad brought over a few Armenian type cukes from my grandmother's house...They were super sweet and fabulous. We made agua de pepino (literal translation=cucumber water...I think that cucumber juice OR punch is a more appropriate translation). Anyhow, filled a blender about 1/2-2/3 full of white tea (my modification...I used Peat's Snow Leopard. A mild green tea works well too), 1/2 a chopped long Armenian type cuke, sugar to taste and enough ice to blend so that the drink is slushy...I must say, this drink is yumyum. especially, since I live in 100+F dry heat NorCal.