As an amateur garden who is quite frankly making it up as I go, I obviously don’t always grow things in quite the right way. While I can’t be going too wrong if my cucumber plants are producing cucumbers, there have been a few dodgy specimens and a real lull in production.
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| This one reached quite the length, and I like a nice big one. But why the spines?! |
While I would never consider myself in a position to lecture on how to grow cucumbers, one thing I have learnt is; water water water. The fact that cucumbers are predominantly water seemed to have passed me by in the past and evidently I thought my cucumbers were able to find a water source other than what I give them. Nipping down the corner shop and buy it bottled or something. Not this year, I am all over the watering. Come rain or shine I try and give them a good slosh every day, sometimes I really push the boat out and do it twice a day. From my observations I believe ‘La Diva’ will only really support one cucumber at any one time, with smaller cucumbers shrivelling up and falling off as the water is needed in the main vessel. Considering the size they will grow to, this is hardly surprising. As more water appears to equate to more cucumbers one could be forgiven for believing that giving a good feed regularly might help the process along, but I read somewhere only to feed once every two weeks, so don’t be going overboard. The Gardener’s Kitchen website has some useful growing information if you are interested:
Totally didn’t grow my cucumbers clockwise or pick off side shoots- oops! Oh well gives me room for improvement next year. Unfortunately I only found this well into production but still useful.
This year has not been the best in term of volume of vegetable production because of our roof. We had to have the whole thing taken off which involved having scaffolding right through where I keep my vegetable pots. For three weeks they instead had to live in a rather dark corner of the patio rather than sunning themselves against the wall. Then there were a couple of weeks of sudo-winter where I did actually break out my coat and funnily enough cucumbers came to a grinding halt. They are back up and running now though so all is not lost.
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| And here we have beauty and the beast, the perfectly formed one is from a different variety that doesn't grow bulbous bits |
As cucumbers on La Diva will grow to quite a size if you let them and I can’t resist leaving them and seeing how big they will grow which probably results in tougher skins and bigger seeds. One grew to quite a length but also had a definite narrowing halfway along that the mother believes is when it had a little lack of water; clearly let the watering regime slip for a day or two there! It gave it a bizarre perfect handle. Another cucumber insisted on growing tucked away down the back of the pot out of the sunlight and unsurprisingly ended up being a very appetising shade of yellow. That my friends is a cucumber that only a mother could love. Luckily I try not to judge on appearances and I can confirm he was still tasty.
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| My cucumber with jaundice, don't you just want to dive in and slice him?! |
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