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cucumbers and water
So, I've been making some observations on how much water my garden
needs, I have the usual assortment of beginning gardener vegetables. Plus blueberries, cantaloupes and honeydews. Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it. Bell Pepper is next on the list of being thirsty and carrots seem indifferent. Tomatoes also seem tolerant. What adjustments should I make? Jeff |
cucumbers and water
On Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:54:03 -0400, jeff wrote:
So, I've been making some observations on how much water my garden needs, I have the usual assortment of beginning gardener vegetables. Plus blueberries, cantaloupes and honeydews. Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it. Bell Pepper is next on the list of being thirsty and carrots seem indifferent. Tomatoes also seem tolerant. What adjustments should I make? Jeff Cukes are mostly water and so need lots of water. Watering deeply is better than watering frequently. Basically, you're trying to simulate rain. Unfortunately, once you start watering, there's no turning back. (I've started watering this week - I use watering cans and focus on a crop each day. Later in the season I'll get desparate and try watering everyone to keep them going if we go into drought conditions again.) Hope you get better responses than mine. Kate |
cucumbers and water
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cucumbers and water
"jeff" wrote in message ... Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it. Cucumbers are about 90% water, and that water has to come from somewhere. Last year I would sit by my bed for a half an hour with the sprinkler each day. We had WONDERFUL cucumber production. Sometimes I'd miss one among the leaves, and we'd end up with 18-inch-long monsters that looked like small watermelons--and because of all that watering, they were not bitter! Drip watering works best since you can just turn it on and forget about it while it soaks for a couple of hours. --S. |
cucumbers and water
In article , jeff
wrote: So, I've been making some observations on how much water my garden needs, I have the usual assortment of beginning gardener vegetables. Plus blueberries, cantaloupes and honeydews. Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it. What is the soil like under your cucumbers? Is it damp? If so, further watering won't help. What is happening is that your cucumbers are evaporating water to stay cool. They are no longer expending energy on growth, but on pumping water. If you are at home, you may want to go and mist your plants, when they start to droop. If you aren't home, you may need to attach a mister to a timer. Both these methods will lead to an early infestation of powdery mildew. Some kind of netting to partially block the sun may work, but I have no experience with it. Hopefully, some one else in the group is more knowledgeable than I in this area. Secondly, mulch the ground around the base of your plants, with leaves, straw, compost to reduce evaporation. Bell Pepper is next on the list of being thirsty and carrots seem indifferent. Tomatoes also seem tolerant. What adjustments should I make? Jeff -- - Billy There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. Will Rogers http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/1/headlines#4 http://www.tomdispatch.com/p/zinn |
cucumbers and water
On Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:32:35 -0400, jeff wrote:
wrote: On Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:54:03 -0400, jeff wrote: So, I've been making some observations on how much water my garden needs, I have the usual assortment of beginning gardener vegetables. Plus blueberries, cantaloupes and honeydews. Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it. Bell Pepper is next on the list of being thirsty and carrots seem indifferent. Tomatoes also seem tolerant. What adjustments should I make? Jeff Cukes are mostly water and so need lots of water. Watering deeply is better than watering frequently. Basically, you're trying to simulate rain. Unfortunately, once you start watering, there's no turning back. (I've started watering this week - I use watering cans Me too, I like the control. Haven't had a good rain for a while after a wet spring. Tomorrow, I'll really douse them early. Seems like each plant is getting about a gallon a day. That soil gets hot! and focus on a crop each day. Later in the season I'll get desparate and try watering everyone to keep them going if we go into drought conditions again.) Hope you get better responses than mine. I'd say the cukes are my most successful vegetable so far, each plant has a good size cuke on it, with more starting. Do you know when I should harvest? Jeff I've only grown cukes twice so take what I say with several grains of salt. Depending on what type you're growing, harvest before they start to yellow or whiten at the ends. I did better with pickling cukes - gosh they were cute even when they escaped me and grew a bit too large - but the regular sized I tended to harvest before they were "store" sized. The first year did better then the second - I grew them with the okra instead of hills so they got more shade and weren't so needy abut water. (It did make harvesting the okra a little challenging though.) Happy eating! Kate - cukes with garlic, onions, vinegar and olive oil and pepper = mmmm (mine didn't come up this year - I'll live vicariously through yours) |
cucumbers and water
jeff wrote:
So, I've been making some observations on how much water my garden needs, I have the usual assortment of beginning gardener vegetables. Plus blueberries, cantaloupes and honeydews. Topping out the need water category seems to be the cucumbers! It's in the 90's here and even though I water them in the morning they seem very droopy by afternoon and I give them more water. I'm thinking that if a plant's leaves are drooping over, I should water it. Bell Pepper is next on the list of being thirsty and carrots seem indifferent. Tomatoes also seem tolerant. What adjustments should I make? Jeff All cucurbits struggle in the heat not just cucumbers. The reason is that they have big soft leaves that lose water quickly due to both evaporation and transpiration. On a well grown plant the root system can be huge but they also have long stems that take time to deliver water up from the roots. On a hot sunny afternoon it is almost impossible to prevent wilting as the transport system just can't keep up even if the soil is moist. The good news is that although wilting will slow down growth (the leaves shut down to conserve water) they recover quite well. Things to do: - Mulch well to avoid soil evaporation. If your soil is sandy add organic matter to improve its water holding capacity. - Water deeply and less frequently rather than lightly and often, this will encourage deep and spreading root systems. - Water in the mornings before hot days but avoid wetting the leaves as it will encourage mildew which will reduce your crop much more than wilting. - Do not overcrowd the plants so that the root system for each plant can develop fully. - Allow nodal roots to develop (push some nodes under the mulch and cover with soil after fruiting if you like) to short circuit the transport issue. This will also give a measure of protection against vine borer. David |
cucumbers and water
David Hare-Scott wrote:
jeff wrote: snip All cucurbits struggle in the heat not just cucumbers. The reason is that they have big soft leaves that lose water quickly due to both evaporation and transpiration. On a well grown plant the root system can be huge I wondered about that. but they also have long stems that take time to deliver water up from the roots. On a hot sunny afternoon it is almost impossible to prevent wilting as the transport system just can't keep up even if the soil is moist. The good news is that although wilting will slow down growth (the leaves shut down to conserve water) they recover quite well. That's good, I thought it might make the cukes "bitter". My vague understanding is that watermellons are sweeter if they get less water late. Things to do: - Mulch well to avoid soil evaporation. If your soil is sandy add organic matter to improve its water holding capacity. OK, I have a couple bags of cyprus mulch. How much should I put down? An inch or two? The soil is reasonably good. - Water deeply and less frequently rather than lightly and often, this will encourage deep and spreading root systems. - Water in the mornings before hot days but avoid wetting the leaves as it will encourage mildew which will reduce your crop much more than wilting. - Do not overcrowd the plants so that the root system for each plant can develop fully. - Allow nodal roots to develop (push some nodes under the mulch and cover with soil after fruiting if you like) to short circuit the transport issue. Google fails me on this. Where will a nodal root form? Is it where the the plant splits, or is this near the flower/fruit? Thanks to all. Jeff This will also give a measure of protection against vine borer. David |
cucumbers and water
jeff wrote:
David Hare-Scott wrote: jeff wrote: snip All cucurbits struggle in the heat not just cucumbers. The reason is that they have big soft leaves that lose water quickly due to both evaporation and transpiration. On a well grown plant the root system can be huge I wondered about that. but they also have long stems that take time to deliver water up from the roots. On a hot sunny afternoon it is almost impossible to prevent wilting as the transport system just can't keep up even if the soil is moist. The good news is that although wilting will slow down growth (the leaves shut down to conserve water) they recover quite well. That's good, I thought it might make the cukes "bitter". My vague understanding is that watermellons are sweeter if they get less water late. Things to do: - Mulch well to avoid soil evaporation. If your soil is sandy add organic matter to improve its water holding capacity. OK, I have a couple bags of cyprus mulch. How much should I put down? An inch or two? The soil is reasonably good. I don't know anything about cypress but normally put down 2 in of fairly compact mulch or more if it is likely to compact down quickly. - Water deeply and less frequently rather than lightly and often, this will encourage deep and spreading root systems. - Water in the mornings before hot days but avoid wetting the leaves as it will encourage mildew which will reduce your crop much more than wilting. - Do not overcrowd the plants so that the root system for each plant can develop fully. - Allow nodal roots to develop (push some nodes under the mulch and cover with soil after fruiting if you like) to short circuit the transport issue. Google fails me on this. Where will a nodal root form? Is it where the the plant splits, or is this near the flower/fruit? The nodes are the part of the vine where the leaves, tendrils and flowers branch off the stem, in between is just stalk (ie the internode). The vine is made of many of these repeating units; node, internode, node, internode.... If the node is in contact with soil roots will develop which means the water from the soil has less distance to travel compared with the main root where the plant started from. David |
cucumbers and water
"jeff" wrote in message ... I'd say the cukes are my most successful vegetable so far, each plant has a good size cuke on it, with more starting. Do you know when I should harvest? Pick them at any stage between gherkin sized and when they turn yellow. They taste great small or large. If you let them grow until they turn yellow, they may get bitter (though this never happened with the yellow cukes I got). By the way, the more you pick, the more will grow, so picking them on the small side will give you a steady harvest of "snacking" cukes, whereas waiting for them to grow larger will give you bigger but fewer fruits. --S. |
cucumbers and water
David Hare-Scott wrote:
jeff wrote: David Hare-Scott wrote: jeff wrote: snip All cucurbits struggle in the heat not just cucumbers. The reason is that they have big soft leaves that lose water quickly due to both evaporation and transpiration. On a well grown plant the root system can be huge snip OK, I have a couple bags of cyprus mulch. How much should I put down? An inch or two? The soil is reasonably good. I don't know anything about cypress but normally put down 2 in of fairly compact mulch or more if it is likely to compact down quickly. OK, I mulched with cypress which is shredded cypress, fairly light in color. It's noon on a sunny hot day, it'll get hotter. Temperature measurements with my IR thermometer are yielding between 10F and 20F *cooler* with the cypress mulch. I'm thinking this by itself is very good! Cool. The very darkest (near black) soil is almost 30F hotter. Jeff snip |
Quote:
Bigal |
cucumbers and water
jeff wrote:
[cucumbers etc.] I'd build a dam around the roots of the cukes and make it high enough to give the lots of water at one time for a few days. Pick while they are fairly small, less seeds. The same with a bed of peppers, they like lots of water also. Toms I'd water once a week, a good soaking. When it comes to the end of the season, stop watering so it will stress the plant to make them start to turn their fruits to ripen quickly. I'll add that toms should be pinched back as the season starts to end, you'll never be able to get the final blooms to produce ripe tomatoes. -- Bud |
cucumbers and water
On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:23:48 -0600, Bud wrote:
jeff wrote: [cucumbers etc.] I'd build a dam around the roots of the cukes and make it high enough to give the lots of water at one time for a few days. Pick while they are fairly small, less seeds. The same with a bed of peppers, they like lots of water also. Toms I'd water once a week, a good soaking. When it comes to the end of the season, stop watering so it will stress the plant to make them start to turn their fruits to ripen quickly. I'll add that toms should be pinched back as the season starts to end, you'll never be able to get the final blooms to produce ripe tomatoes. Fried green tomatoes, Bud. Or pickled with okra. Relish. There are many ways to use green tomatoes. Kate |
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