Thanks FarmerDill.
I've posted some pics of the cucumber that came off the plant.
The cuke was planted outside from a packet of Ferry Morse
Marketmore 76 seeds.
The leaves are about 5 inches wide, 5 inches high... John
Savage mentioned an A4 size paper. If that's the 11x17 I
will be thrilled and I think I will plant some seeds tonight.
I did pull some out of a package at one time, but I don't
think they ever germinated. If they did, they were the
plants that never made it past 3 inches high. Oh I have
some DM Ferry Poinsett seeds as well that have been
opened. Could be that set of seeds as well.
The Zuke seeds I have are some from a Walmart American
Seed (Squash Dark Green Zucchini) 10 cent package. g
You guys got me excited about 20 inch leaves. If the Zuchs are
not vines... what a shame... I got all excited about 17 inch leaves
on a vine. Awhh shucks. 17 inch leaves though... awesome! I
guess I'll have to space it away from some of the other stuff.
I'm in Tampa, FL. The soil is sandy for the most part. I've
been throwing some of that Viagro fertilizing pellets around.
I'm thinking the Yamato Cucumbers didn't fruit because they
are in the shade all day long, getting indirect sun. While the
Marketmore 76 cukes are in the shade getting some direct
sun, but not too much, as they are in the shade as well. They
seem to like the watered down fertilizer I've been using.
Water seems to pass down through their soil/sand pretty easily
so I threw a bunch of sphagnum peat on top, I'm not sure if
that is the way to go.
Coffee grounds don't seem to be very helpful for Cucumbers.
I'm wondering if I should be throwing some banana peals
down there?
In May or June, we had some roses that were hit by Black
Spot. All the leaves and branches were cut off because
baking soda and vegetable oil didn't seem to help. It struggled
to grow leaves, and I decided to stick some banana peels into
the blender and put the peels into the area around the roots.
That worked wonderfully! The bush grew plenty of leaves and
roses in about a month.
So I'm wondering if the same thing might help with cucumbers.
I want to take some of the burden of using that powdered
fertilizer away. Any comments or suggestions regarding that
will be greatly appreciated.
http://www.microcosmotalk.com/images/garden/cucumber/
The only thing I was unsure about was that all of my cuke
leaves are bigger than cigarette packs, so I was just leaning
into that John might have misposted something, because
the cuke leaves I'm seeing are 2x the size of a cigarette
pack... of course I don't smoke and maybe John's smokes
cigars and calls 'em cigarettes. ;-) What do I know? I've
seen Arnold Schwarzenager smoke a good size cigarette
(cigar) in a movie but that was just a movie and we all
know about the "bigger fish" stories that movies employ.
--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.
"FarmerDill" wrote:
The size of the leaves contadicts what you've stated. I
did plant a zuchini but it didn't make it through Hurricane
Frances. The other cucumber plants I have, a extra long
yamato (Ferry Morse) never fruited. I had two of those
growing side by side, but neither fruited and one died.
The yamato were planted in well fertilized soil outdoors,
while the Marketmore 76 were planted in sandy soil. I
applied some slow release fertilization at the time of
seeding.
The cucumbers seem to like sunlight as long as the temp
isn't too hot.
The Marketmore 76 cucumbers start off growing with
prickly nubbies on it and I wonder what's up with
the nubbies. :-) They seem to rub off and I'm thinking
along the lines that over time, only the nubbie cukes
survived the insects (?).
Also, I noticed something likes to burrow into them
when they reach ripeness. I need to find some more
information about cukes and start reading up on
them again.
Thanks, John for your comments. It's been awhile since
I've posted this and didn't think anyone ever replied. I'll
have to look over google for the replies.
--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.
"John Savage" wrote:
"Jim Carlock" writes:
How do you tell a zuchinni plant from a cucumber plant?
Do you have to wait for the fruit to grow?
You can tell at an early stage. The zuchinni is a much sturdier
plant, with thick stems and leaves larger than an A4 sheet of paper,
and flowers opening to about the size of man's fist. The cucumber is
a more delicate plant, with leaves smaller than a cigarette packet
and flowers no larger than the size of a man's thumbnail. The cuc is
a spreading creeper, while most of the newer zuchinnis are clumping.
--
John Savage
Jim;
John is right on on the difference between a cucumber plant and a zucchini.
Most zucchinis are stocky bushy plants with leaves at leat 4 times larger
than
a cuke. There are vining zukes but they are relatively rare most cultivars
bush
like other summer squash. Blossoms are also huge in comparison to cucumber
and
cantaloupe plants. Even a blind man would not confused the two when grown
side
by side. If you are in the southeast (texas to Georgia, fall plantings are
very
suceptible to pickle worms. The only control is more insecticide
applications
than I am willing to use.