Armenian cucumber

[hendi_alex]

Got a surprise today! I've posted before that we usually combine seed packs by category. This season I decided to buy some Armenian cucumbers which we have never eaten. The seeds were dumped in with Asian cucumber because of the very long fruit produced. We made several plantings of melons and of cucumbers. Yesterday when walking through the garden, much to my surprise, a cucumber was growing on a melon plant. At that point I guessed correctly that it was an Armenien cucumber and that the fruit was actually a melon. When sliced it looks just like a cucumber but is much more dense and crisp. The smooth skin doesn't need to be removed. Will definitely plant these again but in the future will keep the seeds separately identified. I bet these would make excellent, crisp pickles.

[imafan26]

Yeah, Armenian cucumber is a melon and closer kin to bitter melon and cantauloupe. The long melons are also called snake gourd. They are sweet and crisp and the skin is tender and non-bitter.

The first time I planted these I thought they were cucumbers too and they would germinate and die because I plant cucumbers year round and they do not like to grow much in cool weather. I finally realized they need heat to grow.

[valley]

Wait, hold on, excuse me. Armenian Cucumber is a cucumber! That how our cucumber looks and tastes. Grow them and enjoy them. Cucumbers.

Richard

[valley]

When the Apricot was introduced to western Europe. The Romans called it a plum. Prunus Armeniaca, Armenian plum. While the Prune may be a Plumb, the Apricot is not. It's an Apricot.

Richard Charshafian

[valley]

And Pluto is still a Planet.

Good growing.

[applestar]

Cucumbers - C. sativus
Melons - C. melo

...Armenian cucumbers - C. melo

Some melons, Cucumis melo L., resemble cucumbers, being elongate and used as vegetables when young, fresh or pickled. However, C. sativus and C. melo differ from one another in some vegetative traits, plant sexuality and various fruit characteristics.
...
Plant sexuality differs between the two species, however. Plants of C. sativus become increasingly pistillate as they develop (Shifriss, 1961). In sharp contrast, plants of C. melo bear pistillate or hermaphroditic flowers only on the first one or two nodes of shoots, and all apical nodes are staminate (Rosa, 1924). Theophrastus wrote: Some flowers are sterile, as in sikyon, those which grow at the ends of the shoot, and that is why men pluck them off, for they hinder the growth of the sikyoi. The sterile flowers, of course, allude to the staminate flowers and, according to the description, these are borne on the shoot ends, which are nipped off. Removal of the shoot apices would encourage the development of new shoots, pistillate flowers and fruits.

http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/109/1/117.full

The above bit was interesting. As soon as it's light enough, I'm going to go out and see if I can spot these differences. Also, maybe I should try pruning the melon vines as described.

[valley]

Hi Applestar, What about Pluto?

[applestar]

...er... (cough) ... That would be OT and I cannot in conscience comment.

[applestar]

Do Armenian cucumbers have rounded leaves like melons or pointed leaves like cucumbers?

I have a vine growing amok out of my small melon patch that has pointed lobes like cucumbers not rounded lobes like the other melons, and its female flowers have long embryo like cucumbers. I had decided that somehow a cucumber seed got mixed in or volunteered and I didn't notice, but this turn in the topic has reminded me that I mixed my few remaining Armenian cucumber seeds in the pre-germinating seed sprouter with the melons.

I had failed with growing them twice, so it would be kind of cool if this turns out to be Armenian cucumber even if it has been crawling on the ground rather than growing up the melon trellis and has been swallowing the the onions and garlic.

[valley]

Hi, Just a side note: Father started an Armenian Cucumber into a gallon bottle. The fruit would grow against the botton of the bottle, than grow round and round to the front, when removed from the bottle and placed on the table it would be like a spring.
I've seen Armenian Cucumbers that were short and plumper, always liked the longer.

Richard

[valley]

Just read the risque plant sexuality reference and it's intimate description, added to your above, fifth above, post. I have spoken to my plants, they brushed aside all, saying: " round leaf, square leaf, pointed leaf, puff!" We, they assured me, are Varunk, [cucumber], as we were called us those many years ago, when all plants were named, forget the Latin slur."

Some things will have to be changed in all books, to satisfy the plaintiff plant.

I will ask our members who posted above to join in petition to have this changed.

Have a very good day.

Richard

[imafan26]

Armenian cucumbers resemble cucumbers but are in the melon family they taste like cucumbers when they are small, the taste changes as it gets older. They grow faster than cucumbers and are prolific but not all that disease resistant. If they are trellised they grow straight but on the ground they will curl.

[valley]

Greetings imafan, Glad to hear from you. I don't trellis them here because of the wind. You mentioned not all are disease resistant. Do you not all cucumbers or not all Amenian Cucumbers?

I have noticed some seeds produce fruit that tends to get longer, some stouter but shorter.

I follow your post a bit, interesting to hear what you're growing in those very different conditions there, dealing with birds and such we never see here. You can grow things we only dream of in colder areas and can over winter plants we have a tough time keeping.
Couple years ago you mentioned: Pepper Water, that I haven't tried and often plan to, I'll get to it. Thanks for getting back.

Richard

[hendi_alex]

Mine is planted in a row of melons because the plant looks exactly like the other melons. The cuke and melon transplants were not labeled, as the vines are so obviously different. So was quite a surprise when the cuke magically appeared on the melon plant.

[valley]

Hi Alex, Have you already posted pictures showing this technique? This year I planted the cucumbers on a mound, next year maybe I can arrange a windbreak and trellis. I just read Eclectic gardening in your post. I know what eclectic means.
OK, I get it. Well, I have been doing the same, Alex, we went to different schools together. Good talking to you.
Richard

[hendi_alex]

I didn't exactly mean planted in a row. Actually is a row of hills, planted along a fence, so that the vines can climb if so inclined. Also, my hills are not literal hills, but rather clusters of 2-3 plants in each small group.