Stages of a cucumber plant..
I have been watching my 3 cucumber plants closely for about 3 weeks. t first it was lots of male blossoms and lots of bees. Then it was a few female blossoms and still bees. Once the females were pollinated, the bees seem to have left. Now each plant has about 4 or 5 cucs growing and I have lots of lady bugs and lady bug larva, hardly any new blossoms. I suppose this is normal.
For some reason for me, summer squash and cucumbers seem to be cyclic in producing and setting fruit.
Each plant will produce five our six fruit. Then they seem to just sit and grow for a while. Then they go into another productive cycle. If the fruit from the first productive cycle is still on the vine, it seems to delay the next productive cycle. I think plants are simply determined to continue the existence of their species by fruiting and seeding. When they have fruit on the vine, they seem to think their job is done. When the fruit is removed, they again feel the need to fruit and seed.
I am growing a sweet cucumber which produces fruit 14" long and longer. When the vines have a few fruit on which I allow to grow to almost full length, they produce female blooms which abort the tiny fruit until I harvest the larger fruit.
Ted
Each plant will produce five our six fruit. Then they seem to just sit and grow for a while. Then they go into another productive cycle. If the fruit from the first productive cycle is still on the vine, it seems to delay the next productive cycle. I think plants are simply determined to continue the existence of their species by fruiting and seeding. When they have fruit on the vine, they seem to think their job is done. When the fruit is removed, they again feel the need to fruit and seed.
I am growing a sweet cucumber which produces fruit 14" long and longer. When the vines have a few fruit on which I allow to grow to almost full length, they produce female blooms which abort the tiny fruit until I harvest the larger fruit.
Ted
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I've fount it to work the same way with my peppers. It seems like I get at "flush" of ripe peppers, then nothing, then another "flush". With my toms, it's one here, one there. But, not with the peppers.tedln wrote:For some reason for me, summer squash and cucumbers seem to be cyclic in producing and setting fruit.
Each plant will produce five our six fruit. Then they seem to just sit and grow for a while. Then they go into another productive cycle. If the fruit from the first productive cycle is still on the vine, it seems to delay the next productive cycle. I think plants are simply determined to continue the existence of their species by fruiting and seeding. When they have fruit on the vine, they seem to think their job is done. When the fruit is removed, they again feel the need to fruit and seed.
I am growing a sweet cucumber which produces fruit 14" long and longer. When the vines have a few fruit on which I allow to grow to almost full length, they produce female blooms which abort the tiny fruit until I harvest the larger fruit.
Ted
With the cukes, you will get more of a yield if you pick them while they are smaller rather than larger.
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I have 3 cuc plants, said to be of the Lebanese variety, but bought from different places. Two from a gardenware store and one from a local grower. I find the locally grown plant has the best cucs (dark green), but only has a handful of female flowers at any given time. It has heaps of males though, ALL of the time.
Whereas the other 2 plants (paler green) were having a bonanza of females but no males. Solution? Cross-pollinating. Which has created an interesting type of cucumber.
The first flush of cucumbers were pretty regular-shaped. However now that we've harvested so many, the plants have started to produce
some that are shaped like papayas, eggplants and some which are almost round with just a tapered end. We even had one which was 'square' shaped when cut:
[url=https://img843.imageshack.us/I/pa050200.jpg/][img]https://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1606/pa050200.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Anyone find their cucumbers grow into interesting shapes as well?
Whereas the other 2 plants (paler green) were having a bonanza of females but no males. Solution? Cross-pollinating. Which has created an interesting type of cucumber.
The first flush of cucumbers were pretty regular-shaped. However now that we've harvested so many, the plants have started to produce
some that are shaped like papayas, eggplants and some which are almost round with just a tapered end. We even had one which was 'square' shaped when cut:
[url=https://img843.imageshack.us/I/pa050200.jpg/][img]https://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1606/pa050200.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Anyone find their cucumbers grow into interesting shapes as well?