Poona Kheera Cucumber is Very Prolific!

Megan was kind enough to give me a Poona Kheera cucumber plant and it's amazing! We've gotten at least three dozen cucumbers from it and they are delicious, with great texture. None of the other cucumbers we planted survived, possibly because they weren't in a good location, but next year I'm not going to bother with green cucumbers, my family loves the yellow ones! I'll try to snap a couple of pictures and post them

Listing from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Thank you Megan!

Congrats, miinva, you're very welcome, and I am SO glad they worked out well for you! I got quite a few myself, but my vines are all but dead... I think they succumbed to cucumber bug wilt. Lesson learned for next year, but I am definitely going to try them again!

I love the texture, too; they are very crisp and also keep a long time.

I am just now doing cucumbers. I was wondering if the Poona Kheera are also good for pickles. The ones I have supposedly do double duty, but they are not big enough yet. I did buy some canning jars today and have saved my dill heads so am excited to give that a shot. If there is a prolific cuke that also can be pickled (I guess they all CAN, just some are better for it) then it sounds like a keeper.

They were great as fresh pickles. Have not tried to can mine yet. I have some in the fridge that I have been holding for a few weeks now, I really need to hurry up and do something with them.

My fresh pickles. I used too much garlic so after a couple of days they were REALLY hot/garlicy, but oh, yum!

In googling around the web I found a post about poona kheera that said picking them with a little bit of brown or just before they get any brown yields a cucumber with less, smaller seeds. I've picked them at all different degrees of brownness and I have to agree, although even the ripest cuke was delicious!

I haven't pickled any of them, so I can't offer an opinion about that, but if I do I'll let you know.

I have picked them all brown, half brown, a little brown, all yellow... and I have a few on the remaining vine that I may even try green out of pure desperation. The brown ones, the skin is a little thicker, but I don't mind it.

The brown usually starts from the stem end, but I had one that started from the blossom end! I was afraid I had BER, but it was fine. It was just a backwards cucumber.

Ok, I searched on Poona Kheera and this was the only thread I found, so y'all must have been the ones who introduced me to it...but didn't mention that it would try to take over the world! I think I'm going to be moving a tomato plant today. Poor thing doesn't stand a chance against the Poona Kheera in the next square. AND I planted 2 per square (since that's what you do with regular cukes) I will definitely be leaving the square on the other side empty as well. And all this is before getting any cukes...these are still young plants! So far it seems like the pests don't like them nearly as well as my standard green cukes and they've fared much better in the late summer heat. LOL...haven't gotten to try them yet, but unless I find them totally gross, Poona Kheera is definitely a keeper!

Just need to plant 1 per square in a corner box (my trellis extends another foot beyond the bed on each side) next time.

Thanks for introducing me to this great variety.

LOL!!! So glad you are enjoying them!

Mine grew very aggressively, but they died well before their time due to cucumber wilt. I'd never grown cukes before and started spraying way too late in the season. I'd guess the vines got to 12 feet long or so before they succumbed, though, and they looked like they were no where near stopping yet. (I planted 2 to a square, too. Great fun!)

It is a variety from India and so I'm not at all surprised they like heat. It was only really starting to hit true "heat" around here when mine died.

What I found is that one day, there's nothing there, then you turn around and bam, there's a cucumber already ripe, so keep a close eye out once the vines start bearing.

Try them both in the yellow stage (if you can catch them yellow), and in the brown stage which comes a little later. The taste is a little different between them as well as the skin thickness. I slightly preferred them brown or halfway brown, some prefer them yellow.

Yesterday I thought I saw the first female blossom, but today I found a cucumber already 3-4 inches long! I'm excited to watch it grow!

elliephant wrote:Yesterday I thought I saw the first female blossom, but today I found a cucumber already 3-4 inches long! I'm excited to watch it grow!

That is exactly what they do! Have fun Ellie. Keep a close eye... they go quickly.

They sound terrific. I'm going to have to order some next spring. They are on my list.

Picked the first one this morning

It was delicious. More following right behind!

Wow, what a beauty.

Looks great, Ellie! You may want to try letting them go a little longer and see how you like them then. See that yellowing at the stem end? The whole cuke will go that color (even tan, a little later) and that is the ripeness indicator. I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of mine.

EDIT:

Here's a few pictures. The one in the bowl on the far left is about how I like to pick them, but all of them here were okay, even the ones that are really brown. (The skin does seem to thicken up a little in the really brown ones, but I did not find that objectionable. Your mileage may vary.)

It's a good thing they are okay over a range, though, because wow they ripen fast!

My plan is to let each one that comes on ripen a bit more than the last, so that I can sample the full range. And so I don't have to wait so long on the first ones

Great plan!

Well, I ended up harvesting the second one at about the same stage as the first...looked more ripe before I brought it in. Got this third one later, BUT there was a small hole it...turned out a cabbage worm had gotten to it first! I am having such a problem with cabbage worms this season, but that's for another post.

Looking great! Wish mine had lasted long enough to have trouble with cabbage worms.

Yeah, it's not going to last much longer, I'm afraid. Something is turning the leaves yellow (maybe the same virus that got my squash?) AND I found powdery mildew this morning. It's been a rough fall; our temps are running way about normal (supposed to be 97 today!) and no rain this month, which is supposed to be our second rainiest month. The pests and disease are the only things thriving.

I'm sorry to hear about the weather conditions making growing difficult.
I've been watching about the cukes so I can get a 'feel' for them next year when I plant my own. I'll try them as an experiment just the same. I'm in the northern climes so it might make a difference.
Sorry you are having such heat and no rain.

Mine died of cucumber wilt, I'm pretty sure (caused by cuke bugs). I did have a little yellowing and some soil amendment helped with that, but I think mostly it was the wilt. I had a little mildew towards the end but it seemed at least somewhat resistant to that.