cucumbers and water

 

   So, I've been making some observations on how much water my garden
needs, I have the usual assortment of beginning gardener vegetables.
Plus blueberries, cantaloupes and honeydews.

   Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's
in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem
very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that
if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it.

   Bell Pepper is next on the list of being thirsty and carrots seem
indifferent. Tomatoes also seem tolerant.

   What adjustments should I make?

   Jeff

 



Cukes are mostly water and so need lots of water. Watering deeply is
better than watering frequently. Basically, you're trying to simulate
rain. Unfortunately, once you start watering, there's no turning back.
(I've started watering this week - I use watering cans and focus on a
crop each day. Later in the season I'll get desparate and try watering
everyone to keep them going if we go into drought conditions again.)

Hope you get better responses than mine.

Kate

 

kate@notme.com wrote:

  Me too, I like the control. Haven't had a good rain for a while after
a wet spring.

   Tomorrow, I'll really douse them early. Seems like each plant is
getting about a gallon a day. That soil gets hot!


and focus on a

   I'd say the cukes are my most successful vegetable so far, each plant
has a good size cuke on it, with more starting. Do you know when I
should harvest?

   Jeff

 



I've only grown cukes twice so take what I say with several grains of
salt. Depending on what type you're growing, harvest before they start
to yellow or whiten at the ends. I did better with pickling cukes -
gosh they were cute even when they escaped me and grew a bit too large
- but the regular sized I tended to harvest before they were "store"
sized. The first year did better then the second - I grew them with
the okra instead of hills so they got more shade and weren't so needy
abut water. (It did make harvesting the okra a little challenging
though.)

Happy eating!

Kate - cukes with garlic, onions, vinegar and olive oil and pepper =
mmmm (mine didn't come up this year - I'll live vicariously through
yours)

 




Pick them at any stage between gherkin sized and when they turn yellow.
They taste great small or large.  If you let them grow until they turn
yellow, they may get bitter (though this never happened with the yellow
cukes I got).  By the way, the more you pick, the more will grow, so picking
them on the small side will give you a steady harvest of "snacking" cukes,
whereas waiting for them to grow larger will give you bigger but fewer
fruits.
--S.