Pssst - mate - wanna buy a cuke ???

[sewer rat]

Here are my beloved cuke plants - after having removed and sold about 100.
Gonna make loads of soup, pickles and chutney methinks - even allowing for selling a minimum of 50 per week

[Hazel at the Hill]

cucumber face packs?

cucumber smoothies?

[Dobby]

Wow thats a lot o cukes
we thought you could not store um some recipis would be good

[terrier]

You could sell the cukes to the local police force to use as truncheons (only for minor incidents)

[shirlthegirl43]

Wow Rat - gonna pass along the secrets of your success please?

[janeyo]

They look great - what variety are they? are they inside or outside?
Shame I'm not nearer... I love cukes and we get through about 5 a week (just 3 of us and the baby!)
Only had one off my one plant so far, but it was delish and got 2 more almost there.....

janeyo

[Flummery]

Mine has only produced one so far - another two are about 6" long though so there's hope. It's always a feast or a famine in gardening isn't it? Good luck with your recipes Rat.

[mrdinkle]

Wow! that's a lot of eyemasks and cucumber sarnies.

[mcsee]

Wow Rat - gonna pass along the secrets of your success please?

Yes please Rat. Can you give us some details on breed and any secrets you use in growing. As well as Shirl, there's at least one Aussie here who'd like to know.

[Nicos]

Those are FANTASTIC Rat!!!!!

Well done mate!

[sewer rat]

No real secrets to tell - me and cukes have always got on well.
The two varieties I grow in my tunnel are Femspot and Pepinex 69 - both F1 All Female varieties.
Sow the seed on it's edge in a 3" pot in mid April, and let it grow - approx 95% germination rate this year. I sow about 20 more than i need as I find that some get to about 4" in height then seem to die back on me.
Anyway before planting out I make sure there is plenty organic matter in the ground and that the eight ft canes are sunk in by about a foot, leaving me a 7ft high growing pole. I place the plant alongside the cane, planted just slightly deeper then it was in the pot, firm it in, then sink the empty pot alongside (about 3" from the plant itself). I grow mine quite hard and intensively - an absolute max of 18" between plants, and just enough room to walk up and down between rows.That's it - water every couple of days when young and when it starts to produce fruits, every day, or twice daily depending on how hot it gets outside. Always water through the pots - water gets straight to the root and you avoid getting the stems wet - which they do not like and can cause all sorts of rot to set in. Being F1 all female plants, the cukes grow off the central stem, and oppposite each baby cuke is a side shoot - these are removed regularly - at least twice a week, and the plants tied onto the canes. When the plant reaches the top of the cane, the growing tip is removed. I also remove the lower leaves (as you can tell from the photos - no set guide to this but I tend to remove the lowest 5 leaves but to be honest this is more to make it easier to see what I'm doing when watering All damaged leaves or malformed or yellowing cukes are removed immediately. That's it. Dawdle really !!
ps Just made about 10 litres of cuke and mint soup this evening !

[Kristen]

Rat: Great advice, thanks.

Do you pot on, or are they planted out straight from 3" pots?

If you stop at 7ft and have taken out the side shoots isn't that a short season? My cues are 10' already, and we've a few months to go yet ...

[sewer rat]

Rat: Great advice, thanks.

Do you pot on, or are they planted out straight from 3" pots?

If you stop at 7ft and have taken out the side shoots isn't that a short season? My cues are 10' already, and we've a few months to go yet ...

I haven't got time to pot anything on, so my veg are planted out from whatever they were started in - from 3" pots to small 54 cell packs for brassicas..
As for short season - two points - up here the season is short anyway and secondly, I plant in succession, so my first 22 plants are at 7ft, the next 22 are at 5ft and the last lot of 22 are at about 4ft. That should keep me going. I picked another 55 on Friday (and sold them all ), and I should have the floor cleared by next Friday.
My Cucumber and Mint soup was popular at the Farmers Markt too - made 10 litresand only brought back one 500ml carton !!

[mandi]

beautiful cuke plants!!!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Cor, they are fantastic! I bought two seedlings from the garden centre - one died within days, and the other is barely a foot long. It tried to grow a cucumber, but it looked more like a cashew so I put it out of its misery!!