Friday 23 May 2014

Cucumbers - thriving or surviving?

The cucumbers I planted out last week seem to be recovering from whatever it was that ailed them - disease? lack of nutrition due to poor compost? Although the first few leaves were beyond redemption and have been cut off, the plants have made several new ones:

Cucumber "Iznik F1"

One plant is in a big pot just outside the Living-Room door, surrounded by herbs, Sweet Peas and Aquilegias:


As you can see, I have put into the pot a trio of canes (5 foot long), around which I will train the plant.


The other two plants are down near the big Woodblocx raised bed, in a huge tub made from half of an old water-butt:


They look far from strong, but I do think they will survive, now that we have hopefully seen the last of the cold nights. I have given them a big dose of plant-food to boost them up.


The plants sheltering in the lee of the big tub are my spare tomato plants. They look just as good as the "main" plants I potted up. I think it would be a great shame to just throw them on the compost, so I have promised them to a friend (one of my regular "garden helpers"). She always accepts spare plants because any she can't use herself go to a plant sale in aid of our local hospital.


I really do hope the cucumbers manage to pull through, because I know how much my two "English" granddaughters love cucumbers! I say "English" granddaughters because of course these days we have a "French" one too. I wonder if she will like cucumbers when she is older? I expect so, since her mother seems to have inherited the green fingers.

10 comments:

  1. I'm glad your cukes are recovering. I haven't even planted mine yet. I will plant seeds soon though. Maybe this weekend.

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  2. I have a similar coloured Aquilegia to the one you have in the top photo. I hope your cucumbers do well for you, mine is in the greenhouse but I have planted my Gherkins outside. They are such prolific plants aren't they, a lot of ours get given to Mikes nephew & nieces as they adore them, Congrats on getting to your 500 follower.

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    1. Thanks Jo; Getting the 500th Follower was a major milestone for me, as was a million pageviews (on which Blogger and Google Analytics disagree considerably!)

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  3. Fingers crossed for the cucumbers - I see the one ny the house has a flower.

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  4. I've never tried growing cucumbers. If I had a greenhouse I might have done.

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  5. I have grown cucumbers in the past the taste is wonderful compared with supermarket offerings hope yours recover OK

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  6. The cucumbers certainly look like they have recovered fully, and who doesn't like cucumbers? The most recent bag of potting mix that I bought has given me problems, infected the okra and eggplant seedlings with aphids. Tossed the rest of the bag in the compost bin.

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  7. Look like they're on the mend, mine have barely started.

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  8. It seems to me they are struggling to recover. I too love the cucumbers. In Croatia, we make the salad with sliced cucumbers and sour cream.

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  9. I am putting mine outside today-they have been growing inside in my office for a few weeks-little nervous since this is the first time I've grown from seed and they look smaller than those at the greenhouse! Fingers crossed! Thank you for all your blog posts-they help me tremendously even though I'm here in the "States"! We are quite a bit behind you here in the Northeast.

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