Super size pickling cumubers. Strangest thing.

11 years ago

I've had 3 straight years of Huge cucumbers. The first year I thought I just bought the wrong ones so the second year I went to a all organic nursery that even grow some for their own farm. I do raised beds with a neigbor so we have tried 3 spots plus two of the beds have diffnert soil because they went in the second year and we got it in bulk. The only consitant thing over the last 3 is that I plant them with our tomatoes. We live in Virginia Beach in a new development (3 years old) and neighbors one block away cucumbers grow normal. I am posting some pics of the granden as well as a example of a 15" cucumber, which about average for us. These are the ones that are Suposed to be between 6 to 8 inches!

Anybody have a clue why, we are figuring some crazy microbe but I lack the expertise as well as the equment to figure it out. I am willing to send soil or air sample to anyone who can. Having so my cucumber that your giveing them away like zucchini is not a bad thing!

Here is a link that might be useful: I couldn't get the pics to upload on this site so I posted a link to my Facebook page and made the pic public

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Comments (11)

jengrace
Original Author
11 years ago
The 15" one

Here is a link that might be useful: 15
jengrace
Original Author
11 years ago
The garden

Here is a link that might be useful: Pic
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I have tried baking soda with little effect a mix of ascorbic acid and water may also help a little. The mildew happens rapidly and once you see a single yellow leaf, it has begun. I spray with a fungicide called Serenade, which works quite well. Its done every 7 days during the bearing of the cukes. Bees love the blossoms and I usually have many bees busy all day long. I go out and pick at sunrise as its a little cooler and easy to find them on a vertical trellis. The honey bees must be local as they are busy all day and the area sounds like a huge bee hive. They usually are just fine even if I am out there picking right next to them, as they are not very aggressive. I posted links above to web site for pickling cucumbers, and if you don't know how to get these links copied to an internet browser, just simply point at an end or start of the HTML line (above), and hold down the left mouse button and move to the left or right to highlight the whole line. Once highlighted, press the control key down while you then press the C key. Open a new browser page and remove the text at the window at the top. Or point to what text is there, and then its highlighted, press the delete key. Position the mouse pointer in that window while you hold the control key down and presk V to paste the previously copied text. Press enter. Then it will show you the web page link. I made it easier to show you the Jung pickling cucumber seed assortment. Here is a link that might be useful: Jung Seed- pickling cukes
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Total newbie here but I figured I'd put in my 2 cents. I started container gardening this year and I have 4 picklebush and 2 burpless (which I found out too late are not great for pickling so I've been giving them away). With my 4 picklebush, I get 6-10 ripe cukes a day so I can do a small batch of pickles every day or two. I've been using the Ball Kosher Dill mix in a can just because I can easily do whatever size batch I have ready. I want to try some other mixes and making my own but so far the Ball is all I've done. I'm a working single mom with two little boys so "quick and easy" is a must. I bring in a few cukes and wash them, put the pickle mix and vinegar on the stove while I slice the cukes and put them in jars, pour the boiling liquid into the jars and that's it. I've been keeping them in the fridge because I didn't have a big pot that would work on my glass-top stove for actually canning them but I got one this weekend so we'll see how much trouble that step adds. With ~10 cukes, I can fill 3 small (12 oz?) jars which is perfect for a batch and coincidentally, that's just how many cukes I have ripe every day or so. My very picky 7-year old tasted a homemade pickle for the first time yesterday. He thought about it for a minute and then exclaimed "It tastes just a like a real one!" which I think he meant as a compliment? If you're on a low-sodium diet, the Ball mix may be way too salty for you. I like salty stuff but they're right on the borderline for me. That didn't stop me from eating a whole jar by myself last night without even realizing it! My friend swears by Mrs. Wage's kosher dill mix but I like the flexibility to do a smaller batch so I haven't tried that yet. For me, growing picklebush has been very easy and very forgiving. Mine have been through some abuse since I was just learning and started them in small pots, then moved them to bigger ones, didn't trellis them at first and added a trellis after the fact, overwater, underwater, GA heat, etc. They've thrived in spite of it all. I think disease is less of a concern when you're growing in containers because you start with "clean" soil but pests haven't been a problem for me. There are always lots of bugs around those plants but they haven't caused any problems yet. With cukes you can't forget to pick them because they grow so fast. A little baby may be only an inch long this morning and 4 inches tomorrow!
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farmerdill
11 years ago
You did not mention variety which is the most important factor.
digdirt2
11 years ago
Looks like one of the burpless varieties. It's not a pickling cuke variety.

Dave
Joe1980
11 years ago
Hey, you can always pickle them yet. Though not normal, they'd be a good conversation piece. I grow picklebush and burpless, and I find the burpless make good pickle spears. I can't say though that my burpless ones ever grew that long. You didn't disolve a little blue pill in your watering can did you?

Joe
Ohiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
11 years ago
I find that my cucumbers need to be harvested within 4-6 days after they are pollinated. I grow divas and they can grow more than an inch a day. How fast are you harvesting? How much are you watering? They seem to need a lot of water to fatten up, but not to lengthen.
jean001a
11 years ago
Looks like a Japanese cucumber.
pennypond USDA 10 Sunset 21 CA
11 years ago
I agree with Jean. It looks like an Asian cucumber to me, most likely Tasty Green. This year I bought transplants from a local nursery. Here shows the label.
{{gwi:88513}}
{{gwi:88514}}

Last year I grew Tasty Queen from seeds, they were slightly shorter but also very good.
{{gwi:88515}}

Asian cucumber is always sweet. I used to grow Sooyoo, but I don't want to deal with the spines anymore.
jengrace
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes it does look like the asian ones but I was buying the ones Labled pickling, fruit size 6". Darn it I wanted some normal sized one this year. Defiantly not burpless I just pick them young. It take about a week in this hot weather to grow form about 2" to the 15" or so inches I like to pick them before they fatten up to big. No I only use the orgainic stuff pluss the frist year here I was pregnant and could not be in the heat more than a few min so I am sorry to say every thing was a bit sad except the crazy cucumbers.
We are miltary so I have grown them before and they were what you expect. Last year I was so sure I got sold the wrong kind I went with a friend and grilled one of the owners that we were getting what we wanted. You can see the link below it did not matter. Now I can believe that something I bought was miss Labled one year but this my 3 time from 3 different places reading the labels each time. I think I will let one go and get some seeds and see what baby's these monsters produces. Also thought about taking some of the soil and dumping it on one of the neigbor down the block who has normal ones and see what happens (: after all he said I should just pick them earlier but I really don't feel like eating so skinny.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here is a pic of my son holding one from last year
t-bird
11 years ago
pick them when they are 6"?
digdirt2
11 years ago
Sounds like you got mis-labeled plants. Happens more often then not.

Dave

Super size pickling cumubers. Strangest thing.

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jengrace
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Super size pickling cumubers. Strangest thing.

Comments (11)

jengraceOriginal Author

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jengraceOriginal Author

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jengrace
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