Boy Meets Girl...
...A little 70's Jazz, and Violå A Cucumber is Born!
ABOVE,One of 4 types of Cucumber Variety I am growing, this is a National Pickling Cucumber and perfect for the types of cucumber you want for making Pickles.
On a typical Cucumber plant, on average, there are 10-15 Male Cucumber Flowers for every ONE female. It's like living in Alaska. The ladies are busy. Also, typically, male flowers open about 10 days earlier than female flowers, so, getting the timing right is sometimes difficult, early on. Later, during mid summer, you should have enough of each open that pollination happens, naturally (thank you Bees!)
Below: The Female Cucumber Flower, curvy, and with a little mini Cucumber (technically, the cucumber 'ovary')
Some gardeners take a cotton swab, and hand pollinate, by running the swab inside both types of flowers to get the two together! That feels forced. I'd rather let them make their own choices, get to know each other, maybe over a cup of coffee or a walk or something before gettin' it on! (Now who's anthropomorphizing @dreemsteem?)
The 4 varieties of Cucumber I planted are, Spacemaster 80, Straight 8, Muncher, and National Pickling. Spacemaster 80 and Straight 8 are similar and produce 8 inch (20cm) cucumbers, typically straight, and I chose two different kinds to guard against a bad batch of seeds, different disease, and also, they mature and come to fruit at different times. The Muncher is slightly smaller at 6 inches (15 cm) also straight, slightly thinner skin and less seeds. The National Pickling(shown above) is smaller, and produces more fruit, with less seeds. Perfect for Pickling, or making relish.
to help it climb up the trellis.
Gardening To DO:
- tie up even more tomato, finish trellis
- weed more between onions, perhaps begin to cull some onion and thin the plantings.
- thin carrot, too
Leave me a comment, below... and a link to your garden!
your own health and your own lives.
The GroVid22 Challenge:
Grow Your OWN is not just a simple short challenge,
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BluefinStudios
