This is the first and most beautiful of the 4 cucumbers that comprised the entire harvest of my cucumber plants.
The plant had been looking incredibly healthy … tons of blossoms on it … but each succeeding cucumber was smaller and a little bit more deformed on the end, until the 5th and last that was small and round (i didn’t even get a photo of it).
At the same time that the fruiting of the plant was stopping, he leaves of the plant started to yellow and fall off and no more of the blossoms would develop into fruit.
We have had tons of rain. Rain every day. I put a batch of new Worm Soil on it and I thought it was starting to pick up, but i think the new nutrients just washed away.
This always happens with certain types of plants in my garden … like cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers (other plants, like the oregano and the chives, absolutely thrive with little or no intervention on my part). And even though it is rainy right now, it doesn’t matter the season … it always happens. The plants start out strong and healthy and full of blossoms, and after the first beautiful vegetable, the production sharply tapers off and each one becomes smaller until there is no more. Is it the result of the alkaline soil? A fungus? Is there a type of cucumber that might grow better? I have tried mulching (didn’t seem to make much difference), I have tried covering the garden with a dark mesh for protecting plants (it blocked too much sun and i had other problems) and I repeatedly add compost and worm soil and fertilisers. Does anyone have any idea if there is a solution to this problem short of building a greenhouse?
Meanwhile … since there were only 4 cucumbers, I wanted to do something special with them, and right about that time I ran across a recipe called Refrigerator Cucumber Salad. And even though it is called a salad, it looks like pickles (which i Love). And it looked like the perfect way to use the cucumber harvest. Stay tuned for the next two posts for the recipe.
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