Grow log by areyoukittenme · Original thread
What you can learnShows the advantages and limitations of a compact non-parthenocarpic cucumber, especially pruning risk, light height, and difficult hand pollination.
*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.
Yep, it's embiggening impressively, areyoukittenme!
Yes! Love that word! And the cucumber!
My sweetie and I tried the oldest cucumber yesterday! I think I left it on the vine too long, though, because it was tough and a little bitter. So I'll probably pick the second one either today or tomorrow and see if that one is nicer (I think it will be).
Cucumber #2 was indeed much nicer! We sliced it up for a salad. I'm going to call it quits here on the Dar cucumber, since I don't see any others that were pollinated. My final thoughts are that it's adorably small, but hard to hand-pollinate. The cukes are yummy when picked at the right time, and if I had somewhere outdoors to grow them I'd def give them a try there!
An interesting project!
It had a nice run. Now what you going to grow next?
I was thinking about trying the green beans I had trouble with again. Now that I've been using the calmag that Sher told me about, I'm curious to see if they'd do better!
Love it! If the Q-tip disappoints, try a kid's toothbrush.
I am so glad it's putting on new growth! I guess it figures, "If I can't grow there, I'll just grow here!"
It's got a can-do attitude! I got the CALiMAGic I ordered, and today I added 4 ml to the Bounty!
Cukes are willing branchers! So funny about your pruning mishap, areyoukittenme--after the fact, anyway!
It's almost ready for vine-training, areyoukittenme! It looks so healthy!
A spa day!
A spa day! That should make for a very happy, productive plant!
I don't think it's anything to worry about yet. Cucumber leaves seem to always cause a lot of worry. I'll let an experienced cucumber grower answer, though.
areyoukittenme, cucumbers seem to develop a narrow band of yellow around the edges of the leaves, even when the plants are healthy. All of my cukes have done this, and I noticed that the cuke leaves in the YouTube Aerogarden Experiments videos also have the yellow edges. The leaves in the photo look okay. Don't be surprised if they dry up and wilt as the vine grows taller. You can try adding some CalMag to help the plant green up, if you want to do something. Or you could do an early R&R to readjust the nutrients and everything else, even though the plant isn't due for an R&R until next Friday.
Thank you Sher and lynnee! I'll leave the plant be and resist the urge to fiddle. That can be hard to do, as several of my former houseplants could attest 😅
This is how my hybrid "Baby" cuke seedlings look today. They're too large for the seed starter, but I'm not sure that they'll survive outdoors yet. Ignore the Kratky parsley that is pushing its way into the photo on the right!
Can you move them into a pot to hold them over, lynnee? But then, there's the light problem if you do. They look very healthy.
Ahh, I see what you mean with the yellowing, lynnee! Okay, I won't worry anymore then. I also see that your cuke wants to make friends with the moss rose!
areyoukittenme , I'm glad you could see the band around the cuke leaves! That wasn't as great a photo as I thought when I posted it. My growing Mini Munch now has bright yellow leaf edges, and would have illustrated the point better! Sher , I may transplant the Baby cukes to soil soon for hardening off before moving to the EarthBox. Usually I skip the hardening off, but the Mini Munch didn't make it in the Earth Box. The weather was very erratic, and the cuke seedling wasn't ready for several hours of full sun.
This morning I removed a giant leaf from a Mini Munch cucumber that is ready for its third AG trellis in a Bounty Elite, because the leaf was drying up against the deck. You can be pretty confident that Dar Cucumber will be reaching for the skies soon, I think. It's fun watching your cuke grow!
So much promise in your tiny cucumber plant, areyoukittenme!
Your picture looks great on my iPad--Dar Cuke is going strong! I'm looking forward to seeing all the things that you decide to grow in your garden!
I'm very glad to hear it looks good on your iPad lynnee! This version of the photo takes up about 20 times less bandwidth than the full-size one, which hopefully will help it load a bit faster for anyone on a slower internet connection. Since it still looks okay I'll keep doing that!
It looks great to me!