Greenhouse #1 Update

The cucumber/zucchini greenhouse is spent. This one is Greenhouse #1. Time to tear out the old plants, rejuvenate the soil, and plant again. I sowed the seeds for those plants on June 6th in the mini-greenhouses. They grew there as seedlings until they were transplanted to the large greenhouse on July 1st. On July 16th I harvested my first baby zucchini. The first cucumber was picked on July 29th. By August 25th the plants were starting to fail, so I removed the poor looking ones, keeping the healthiest of the group. Last week I finally called it quits. The plants looked terrible. They were over mature, brittle, had lost most of their leaves, and were no longer flowering. I kept them in the greenhouse just long enough to harvest the last of their fruits. 

Tired old plants ready to be pulled out. 

There were a total of 9 cucumber plants and 7 zucchini. From these I harvested 102 cucumbers and 41 zucchini. I find this to totally amazing because prior to this experiment I had produced only a few cucumbers and zero zucchini. All previous attempts had succumbed to pests and disease. 

Cleaning up the greenhouse, I pulled the plants, pulled or cut off all weeds, and found two humongous overly mature cucumbers hiding down along the bottom of the greenhouse covering. So they brought the cuke total to 104, although these two giants went to feed the chickens instead of us.

12" slicer cuke, and 6" pickler. 

I'm right now in the process of adding soil amendments, which I will lightly till in before replanting. A five gallon bucket of fresh sheep manure per garden bed (each bed is 50 square feet). A 3 inch deep layer of homemade compost. A good sprinkling of dolomite lime, because my soil is deficient in available calcium. 

Cleaned up and ready for soil amendments. Crusty, the black farm dog, is helping. 

The soil in this greenhouse is in the process of being improved and built up. The cukes and squash were the first crops from this soil. So I was impressed with the yield. Of the cukes, the Saber variety was by far the most productive. The other varieties suffered from the soil not being up to par. Of the zucchini, Desert far out did Golden Glory and Black Beauty. Again, I suspect the soil fertility is to blame.  I plan to retry all the various cucumber varieties again, and I'll grow Desert and Golden Glory again. But in place of Black Beauty, I plan to try Partenon zucchini instead. 

Cucumber Success

After trying a multitude of different ways, I've finally hit upon the right combination to give me cukes. 

1- a screenhouse or greenhouse. This prevents the pickleworm moth from destroying the cucumbers. Plus I suspect the plants respond to the extra heat and wind protection. While I've gotten a few cucumbers in the past, mostly hit & miss, I've never before had reliable cuke harvests. 

2- variety. Since I'm growing them in a greenhouse, which not only excludes the pickleworm moth but also honeybees, I'm growing a parthenocarpic variety. This is a variety that produces cucumbers without needing pollination. The one I choose to try first is called Socrates. It's a winner for me. I plan to try other parthenocarpic varieties, but it looks like Socrates will be a regular resident here. I'm also trying a standard pickling type that I am hand pollinating, but frankly it's too much bother. 

I opted to go for a full blown greenhouse for a couple of reasons. I wanted to grow a lot of cucumbers. So I needed the space. Could a home gardener have success with something smaller, say a small screen cage? Probably. It would be worth a try. 

I'm still working out the kinks of growing cukes in a greenhouse. I've got the trellising down ok, but I'm still working out the watering/fertilizing thing. And wondering when powdery mildew will show its ugly head. 

Cucumbers Galore!

Recently the community garden has been flush with cucumbers. Plus my own gardens are pumping out far too many cukes too. Must be the combination of summertime and lots of rain. There have been so many cukes in the community garden that the volunteers aren't taking them all. So what to do with the glut of cucumbers? There's no way I can throw them up into the compost! 

Hubby doesn't like cucumbers all that much. So only a small amount ends up in his salads and stir fries (yes, they are good cooked), not enough to make a dent in the harvest. I'm a pickle lover, so I've made a few jars of pickles, enough to last me a long time. Humm....still too many cukes. There's lots of recipes for using cucumbers, but again, hubby's not fond of them. 

I've resorted to making some cucumber dishes for trading purposes. Some pickles, of course. Some cucumber salad and cucumber salad dressing for a friend who supplies me with goat milk. 

I recently discovered that I like a cucumber smoothie, much like cold cucumber soup. Blend up a juicy, very ripe cuke along with some yogurt, dill, onion or garlic chives. Yum. I made one using mint and basil instead of dill and chives. Yum. Sometimes I add a bit of milk so that it blends easier, other times it's ice cubes. I'm getting hooked on these for breakfasts. 

One of the community garden volunteers makes cucumber ice cream. It's sounds weird, but it is really good tasting. Everybody loves it. 

I still had an excess. I gave some to a veggie seller at the farmers market. I took a pile to the senior center to hand out. Any that have blemishes I'm feeding to the rabbits. They greedily love them. So at last, none have to become compost. At least somebody benefits from them. 

The bummer is that the cuke vines have stopped flowering for now. So shortly I'm going to be in the opposite situation, cukeless. Looks like it's either feast or famine.