Stupid cucumbers

here's a question for you...

Do you know what cucumber plants are doing when they won't make cucumbers because it's too hot out?





TRICK QUESTION!  They ARE making cucumbers, but they're HIDING them from you so they will become enormous and bitter and shut down the plant before you can find them!

  



Big one hit 2lb 9oz, smaller one was 1lb 7oz.  Both of them bitter as the tears that flowed when I realized I may lose those plants now.

Well, let's see if you can selvedge some of them. My Mom would sometimes miss some too. No biggy. She just ripped out the watermelon pickle recipe and used the cucumbers instead. She cleaned out the seeds first and then proceeded. Just a thought.

Well.... if you are looking for a bright side to this, those two will make nice compost and in a way, will return to your garden next year.  And two, your  cucumbers very quietly and sneaky-like, comically communicated to you to be a better detective next time   
I offer you  2 stars for effort and comedy!!  

Use for seed if that is possible.

The bitterness is due to cucurbitacin in the cukes.  Planting "burpless" cukes minimizes that chemical compound.  Watering a lot helps too.  I put mine in self-watering containers this year and its been a big help.

German gardeners know what to do with them. Make senfgurken.

You could try slicing them up and sweating them with salt to take away the bitterness~

If you are looking to salvage you cukes, there is a variation of a Korean condiment called cucumber kimchee that may interest you. If you like hot, heavily spiced, exotic food (it's great on BBQ beef and pork.) Try this link:
http://koreanfood.about.com/od/sidedishesbanchan/r/OiSobaegi.htm

Oh those tricky hiding cukes! Quite impressive! You could do some minimal creative pruning of the foliage to open it all up a bit. This would help with air circulation too. Good luck with trying to jumpstart the plants again.

Okay I'm a little slow ... I guess what I can take away from this is that if you let cucumbers stay on the vine too long, the plant "shuts down" and you can forget about getting any more production?

You got it, Marc.

However, if you're like me, one day, when you have a few healthy cucumber plants growing, you'll want to let one cuke grow and grow and grow, just to see how big it can get.

The largest one I ever harvested was 42.5 oz. Of course, that was also the last one the plant produced.

Marc Iverson wrote:Okay I'm a little slow ... I guess what I can take away from this is that if you let cucumbers stay on the vine too long, the plant "shuts down" and you can forget about getting any more production?

Thanks for asking this Marc - I didn't know this about cucumbers and was kind of scratching my head after reading this last night. Figured I'd come back and read it in the morning and see if it made more sense.

donnainzone10 wrote:... if you're like me, one day, when you have a few healthy cucumber plants growing, you'll want to let one cuke grow and grow and grow, just to see how big it can get.  

The largest one I ever harvested was 42.5 oz.  Of course, that was also the last one the plant produced.  

Love it donna! Is this not true of zucchinis though? I've read of near baseball bat sized zucchinis....

Gwennifer,

I haven't often grown zukes, although I did plant two seeds this year, to allow for germination of one.

Naturally, both sprouted promptly and are thriving in my Mel's Mix. The first (female) blossom appeared today.

So, I don't know whether allowing one squash to grow condemns the plant to stop producing. Guess I'll have to experiment....

Of course, there's also the Horn o'Plenty in the next bed to watch.

Brainchasm:  I am in Las Vegas too.  Cukes were very slow a few weeks ago.  I now shade the tops of all my gardens (I have 4).  In addition, when the temp goes to 105, I now shade the entire perimeter of my gardens after the morning sun.  This lowers the temp inside the gardens by about 15-20 degrees.  Since I started this practice, my tomatoes are beginning to get red and my cucumbers are growing remarkably well on very strong, green branches with dark green leaves.

Picking off the squash bugs and the eggs first thing every morning has also been a habit I had to undertake here.  I was invaded 2 weeks ago and lost 2 squash plants and 2 watermelon plants.  I would find about 50 (F-I-F-T-Y) squash bugs a day for a while.  Yesterday, 2....today about 8.  I now am an "expert" on finding their eggs and flushing the dirty B's out of their hiding.  Diamethacaseous (spelling may be wrong) Earth and Insecticidal Soap have been my friends but I think I applied too much "soap" and damaged plants.  Now, I pick off the bugs each morning and put them in a Ziploc bag and hang the bad to "burn in you-know-where"....Vegas! 

North of North Las Vegas at Jones and "215".

My cucumbers were wiped out by pickle worms. I'm a first year gardener and had no idea the little buggers existed. And they were just starting to produce well, too. Horrid little beasties!

I'm envious of those of you still harvesting cucumbers.

Millenia wrote:My cucumbers were wiped out by pickle worms. I'm a first year gardener and had no idea the little buggers existed. And they were just starting to produce well, too. Horrid little beasties!

I'm envious of those of you still harvesting cucumbers.

Are you going to try planting again? Maybe the pickle worm season is over.

Millenia wrote:My cucumbers were wiped out by pickle worms. I'm a first year gardener and had no idea the little buggers existed. And they were just starting to produce well, too. Horrid little beasties!

I'm envious of those of you still harvesting cucumbers.

Judging from where you are located, you still have plenty of time to plant cukes again. Squash too. I'm replanting my summer squash this week.

Kay

I hadn't thought about starting again. I didn't realize I could. I grew those from plants I bought and don't have any seeds. I just ordered my seeds for a fall garden so hate to pay shipping again. I picked out the ones I want to grow next year but didn't want to order them yet. Darn. Now I'm wishing I'd ordered them anyway. 

As to the worms, we can have 3 or 4 life cycles in one summer so I'm pretty sure they only go away when the cold hits (until next June/July when the moths get here from Florida again.) At least now I know how to kill them. I just have to start earlier next time.

Brainchasm, we had a couple like the big yellow one when we got back from vacation last year. I cut it in to spears and made Refrigerator Pickles. We saved the brine from several bottles of Vlasic garlic Dills and we just put he cucumbers in that and let them sit in the frig for around 6 to 8 weeks.

My Lowes store still has basic seeds included organic. It might not be the variety you want but you probably could get squash and cuke seeds.

Kay

Hoggar wrote:Brainchasm, we had a couple like the big yellow one when we got back from vacation last year. I cut it in to spears and made Refrigerator Pickles. We saved the brine from several bottles of Vlasic garlic Dills and we just put he cucumbers in that and let them sit in the frig for around 6 to 8 weeks.

I did that one year also, but with whole cucumbers.  That was the last year I was successful at getting my cucumber plants to live.

walshevak wrote:My Lowes store still has basic seeds included organic.  It might not be the variety you want but you probably could get squash and cuke seeds.

Kay

 My Lowes didn't have any but Home Depot did! I picked some up yesterday. They were bush type instead of vining. I also got some zuchini seeds. (And a bunch more stuff.) I have about 30 seed packets now. Time to get a-plantin.

Hoggar wrote:Brainchasm, we had a couple like the big yellow one when we got back from vacation last year. I cut it in to spears and made Refrigerator Pickles. We saved the brine from several bottles of Vlasic garlic Dills and we just put he cucumbers in that and let them sit in the frig for around 6 to 8 weeks.

 I'm filing this in the back of my brain (where it hopefully won't get lost.) I didn't realize you could do that. Now I'll have to try it.

camprn wrote:

Millenia wrote:My cucumbers were wiped out by pickle worms. I'm a first year gardener and had no idea the little buggers existed. And they were just starting to produce well, too. Horrid little beasties!

I'm envious of those of you still harvesting cucumbers.

Are you going to try planting again? Maybe the pickle worm season is over.

Nope, the pickle worms attacked the cucumbers last year until almost frost time.  But I did not spray the cucs last year.  The worms just started attacking last week.  Maybe if I spray them now they will not come back.

yolos wrote:
Nope, the pickle worms attacked the cucumbers last year until almost frost time.  But I did not spray the cucs last year.  The worms just started attacking last week.  Maybe if I spray them now they will not come back.

I got some spinosad spray and it seems to be working on my pumpkins. My vines haven't shriveled up and died yet. I was told to spray them weekly because of all the rain we're having. And I found one dead worm so I know it is killing them.