Dragon's Egg Cucumber

[binley100]

Well I s'pose a dragons egg could be a fair bit bigger than a chooks egg.......

[Potstubsdustbins]

Binners at 3" long I think even the one I picked today would make her poor eyes water.

Colin

[binley100]

Not if she was a big dragon.........

[cazp]

Excellent result Potstubsdusbins! - will be interesting to hear how the larger ones compare.

I have three fruits two of which are the size of coffee beans - so going by your timings I guess I am about 2-3 weeks behind in harvesting one assuming they don't drop off. Lots of flowers coming through so hopefully will see more fruit soon.

[Potstubsdustbins]

As I have said before I only have a 8x6 GH and after their performance this year taking into account the awful weather I shall only be growing one to maturity next year.

You would need an awful lot of space to let it sprawl, mine now goes up a 6ft cane and halfway along the GH roof, equal to about 10ft. I have had to cut off all side shoots as these would strangle any other plants near them with their tendrils. They are excellent climbers and have needed very little in the way of tying in.

If the mature fruit is any kind of improvement over the one I ate this afternoon I shall deffo grow it again. In one report I read by a lady she said her hubby liked to eat them like apples and I now believe her.

They are very hungry plants though and at this time I am feeding with tomorite at every other watering.

Colin

[cazp]

Size of the plants will certainly be a challenge for me.

My plants were sown later than yours and are only half way up the 6ft tall plastic blowaway greenhouse. Once they hit the top I will try to train them back down the other side -a lthough I'm not sure they'll like going that way. Worse case scenario I guess I can just pinch out the growing points?

I know what you mean about them being good climbers, if I grew these in future I would always let them climb.

[cazp]

... well so far the plants appear to be thriving, and there are plenty of female flowers now.

Problem is that the earliest 4 fruits to appear got not much bigger than a coffee bean before going yellow, and I assume will drop off.

There are at least 8 or 9 more recent fruits which have appeared and looking nice and green and I have hand pollinated 2 of them.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[cazp]

Just harvested our first dragons egg.. it was coming up for 4inches long and couldn't wait to try one, and it was delicious.

The skin was easily peeled off with a potato peeler, the inside has a very melony taste and sweeter than your average cucumber, no bitterness at all. I think they would go well in a fruit salad as well as savoury salad. Have about 20 fruits in various stages of development left on the two plants I have growing.

Here are some pictures - two plants fit ok in my 6ft blowaway greenhouse so long as you take off some of the side shoots , and as Colin says, they climb easily with little support. Will definately grow again next year.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Well done you. Yes there are very sweet compared to ordinary cumbers and like you will grow again next year.

Colin

[cazp]

Thanks Colin. Have you had many fruits? and what do you find is the best size to harvest?

I figured they needed polinating - fruits I didnt polinate dropped off. The bees do some of the work but I go over with a paintbrush too.

I think two plants is good - one of my plants has mostly female flowers , most of the eggs are on the other plant. (By the way one plant developed a really flat and wide thick stem and stopped growing at that point - not sure why that happened).

I also read that these plants dont like going below 12 degrees in temperature, however a couple of nights here have been around 8 degrees and the plant hasnt been bothered by it - maybe with the blowaway being attached to the house, the bricks are providing a bit of warmth.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I ended up letting one plant grow up to the roof of my GH and then along a string, had over 20 fruits so far mostly picked at about 6".

Yes one of my plants went flat stemmed and stopped growing, I will take it as a warning for next year and sow more than I need just in case.

My GH has been down to 10`C to with no signs of ill effect.

Colin

[cazp]

Just thought I'd share a few more photos.... the plant has grown so much since my last photo on 1st Sep and we are getting many good sized cucumbers now. The plants dont mind the lower temperatures we have had so far (down to 7 degrees) ..

[veggiechicken]

I rather fancy growing these next year! Hope you're both saving seeds (she said rather subtly, I thought!)

[Potstubsdustbins]

Now I am just jealous you have done so much better than me. Still there is always next year.

Colin

[cazp]

Now I am just jealous you have done so much better than me.

Colin

Looking back it seems you've had a better harvest over a longer period so far - are they still cropping?

It's only in the last two weeks we've harvested fruits so its looking like it will be a short run for us before the cold sets in - but not complaining. Any good recipe ideas for cucumber?