cucumbers

[redbird]

There is a cucumber on one of my vines! I don't think it's ripe yet, and so will leave it at least another day, maybe several, but the first cucumber feels more like success than all the pretty bright-yellow flowers.

There are in fact a lot of flowers, and the vines have found the trellis. I think so far all the flowers are on two of the three plants; the third is growing, but more slowly.

Addendum (pulled out of comments): the third vine is also starting to flower. It looks like those may be male flowers, which would be useful if I'm right that most if not all of the flowers I'd seen so far are female.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

*cheers on your gardening*

[athenais]

I keep thinking I'll set up a raised bed garden one of these years so I can grow veg or sweet peas or something that won't be destroyed by the moles. Hurray for the first cucumber!

[redbird]

I'm growing these in a container, which is sitting on graveled area. The landlord pays a landscaping service to mow the (patchy) lawn and clean the gutters; I asked about container gardening when we moved in.

[hrj]

I keep peaking under the foliage on my cucumbers to watch the babies grow!

[sabotabby]

Exciting!

I could not find cucumbers to grow this year. But the potatoes seem to be filling that spave in the garden.

[redbird]

I found these a bit late, but they seem to be working out.

The tomatoes got here even later, and I am less optimistic about them, as my friends report their tomato plants are starting to make (still-tiny) tomatoes.

[minnehaha]

There is still TONS of time for tomatoes.

K.

[pameladean]

Yay cucumber! Indeed, the flowers are great, but if they don't get pollinated or something else goes wrong, they won't turn into cucumbers.

P.

[redbird]

Thanks. I have looked up hand-pollinating cucumbers, but that requires having both male and female flowers, and I'm not going out in this heat to check.

[redbird]

The temperature dropped suddenly as thunderstorms went through, and things are looking promising: the third vine is starting to flower, and I think at least some of those are male flowers.

I also saw a couple of flowers on one of the tomato plants, which weren't there nine hours ago.

[pameladean]

Well,at least one got pollinated all right, and lots of pollinators are pretty thorough about visiting each flower.

[redbird]

A hopeful thought, although there seem to be new flowers every day or two, so we'd need at least one more visit. On the other hand, I have instructions on hand-pollinating, and maybe even an appropriate-shaped brush.

[tarasacon]

Yay, cukes! :)

[nanila]

Huzzah, cucumber! Freshly picked cucumber is so lovely.