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misshapen, bitter cucumbers, or no fruit on zucchini? some timely answers why

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AROUND THIS TIME OF SUMMER everyone wants to know why their cucumbers are misshapen or bitter (or absent!), or their zucchini has lots of flowers, but no courgettes…yet. This story provides the answers. (Tomatoes can likewise be elusive when weather is brutal.) For those lucky ones with a glut of cukes and zukes, that link also includes tips on putting up the harvest–and a recipe for the best refrigerator pickles ever.

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9 comments
August 2, 2012

comments

  1. Ann says

    August 2, 2012 at 10:37 am

    My plant only yielded one cucumber this year. With 106 degree weather most of my plants have given up and no rain in sight.
    Ann

    Reply
  2. Sara says

    August 5, 2012 at 8:59 am

    I planted seeds from a packet called English cucumbers. The picture on the pack showed a long dark green ridged cucumber. What I am getting is a long , ridged, WHITE, or very light green, cucumber. What is going on? They get plenty of water, growing in an earth box. They taste just like they should.
    But I find this strange.

    Reply
    • margaret says

      August 6, 2012 at 7:44 pm

      Hi, Sara. I don’t know for certain but the important thing is that they taste good. :) Seriously, though, I believe white skin is a recessive trait in cukes, meaning occasionally it may display itself against the odds (when the typically dominant green gene doesn’t manage to dominate). You can read about a project breeding cukes to favor the pale skin here and here.

      Reply
  3. Mary Margaret Cairns says

    August 5, 2012 at 1:20 pm

    What has happened to my zucchini and acorn squash. they were producing great and just one day the leaves have all wilted and the plants are dying. It. didn’t happen to them all at the same time but over about 5 days. Thanks for the blog.

    Reply
    • margaret says

      August 5, 2012 at 2:14 pm

      Hi, Mary Margaret. The best reference I could find for you to look at photos and read symptoms on wilt of squash is here. It can be from borers, beetles, bacteria, weather…so check out the symptoms and see what rings a bell.

      Reply
  4. Debbie Soike says

    August 5, 2012 at 2:06 pm

    I also got only one cucumber this year. Totally invaded by cucumber beetles. They ate my squash, pumkins and zucchini. I gave up for this year and pulled them all out. We are used to no rain, but not the brutal humidity we have been getting here in So. Cal.
    Deb

    Reply
  5. Beverly says

    August 6, 2012 at 9:27 am

    Margaret, I have to tell you this cucumber trick. I discovered it accidentally in 2011. It began as a gourd trick, and this year I attempted it with cucumbers with great success. It is a Companion Planting marvel.

    In 2010 the striped and spotted cucumber beetles became a horrible infestation on my gourd vines. I was out there every evening with a small pail of soapy water., chasing after them one by one. Tedious!

    My gourd patch of 2011 sported a small seedling of Sweet Annie Artemisia. I planned to relocate it and did not get to it. Suddenly I realized that I had not seen even one beetle devouring my gourd blossoms. I attributed this development to the aromatic presence of Sweet Annie, which just randomly landed next to the gourd area.

    For 2012, I elected to try growing cucumbers for the first time in many years, hoping the Sweet Annie trick would pan out again. The first problem I encountered was that all over the gigantic back yard garden, not one errant Sweet Annie seedling showed up! I advertised on Craigslist for them, offering to swap the Heirloom Iris ‘Wabash’ and found a fellow gardener about 30 minutes away who had Sweet Annie to trade. I placed the newly acquired annual seedlings near the cucumbers and the gourds and waited hopefully. Their flowers have no beetles! It’s like magic.

    I am in zone 6, eastern PA, and I don’t know if this trick will work in all areas. I can tell you I am extremely pleased with the companion planting arrangement of curcurbits and Sweet Annie.

    Reply
    • margaret says

      August 6, 2012 at 10:13 am

      Love it, Beverly. Fascinating how we make such discoveries, truly.

      Hi, Highpoint Hill. I grow bush types rather than vining most often to save space, but I think for vining I like something like this design (you could buy or do yourself).

      Reply
  6. Gayla Templeton says

    August 8, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    I wonder if some of the anomolies we are seeing in our gardens are the result of the increase in radiation from the earthquake and resulting blow up of the power plant in Japan. I’m reading a lot about it, not so much in the regular press but more in the conversations on some of the social media sites. One researcher has been traveling across the upper part of the United States doing geiger counter readings and it’s a bit scary. The readings from the dust on top of St Louis’ arch were way into the danger catagory months ago and he just recently tested it and it’s still dangerous. Many are doing it in a more local area and finding the same situation. I did read a NY Times article a while back talking about the increase in miscarrages and babies with deformities in the state of Washington and some place in Canada that I wasn’t familiar with and don’t remember. Surely those kinds of reports would account for cukes being white instead of green. We sure miss our normal rain in the states towards the south but I’m thinking that the storms in the north are a blessing to clean up the environment there.

    Reply

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Podcast: Soups, Soups & More Soups

I’VE FOLLOWED a vegetarian diet for decades, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I mastered a really good vegetable soup. Now I’m learning variations on vegetable-based soups, plus ones with beans and even ideas for mushroom soups, too–all thanks to Alexandra Stafford and these recipes. (Stream it below, read the transcript or subscribe free.)

https://robinhoodradioondemand.com/podcast-player/6211/vegetable-soup-ideas-with-ali-stafford-november-5-a-way-to-garden-with-margaret-roach.mp3

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mad gardener, nature addict, award-winning writer & podcaster, rural resident, corporate dropout, creator of awaytogarden dot com and matching book.

Instagram post 2190297402408409324_444552553 Snow day. To be followed by a snow night. #awaytogarden #wavehillchairs
Instagram post 2177779417009402040_444552553 No matter that it was 11F and 17F on mornings this week; my lifelong companions and I are all tucked in, each in our respective offseason spots. Three giant pots of #cliviaminiata that are actually pieces of my long-gone grandmother’s original plant from many, many decades ago, love the offseason bright cold of the mudroom, and get no water till around the new year or so. They need a chill (under 50 but above 35) for about 40 days to trigger timely bloom in late winter/early spring (without it they will bloom whenever, later, like June or even summer). The #alocasia reacts to the cold of the mudroom by shutting down and going dormant and leafless, and then I’ll let it sleep till late winter, when I give it a drink to see if it awakens. That one sleeps and wakes on its own timetable because I do not have a proper spot for it (ideally warm, like 60 or 65 at least, and humid and bright...no can do the humid part here). We have been together probably 10 years anyhow, despite my shortcomings as a #plantparent . #alocasiaamazonica #clivias #houseplantsofinstagram #houseplants #awaytogarden
Instagram post 2172580656557749859_444552553 Gardener: “I raked all the leaves!” Nature: “Oh, really?” (Cue sound of demonic laughter from on high.)
Instagram post 2170506606641504178_444552553 I wanna tell you how it’s gonna be You’re gonna give your love to me I wanna love you night and day You know my love will not fade away Not fade away Nope. Not this #cotinus leaf’s fiery hot love at least. Like the 1957 #buddyholly song I first heard by #therollingstones in 1964, it keeps going. #awaytogarden #fallfoliage2019 #cotinusgrace #notfadeaway
Instagram post 2168987273989949378_444552553 “Jack Frost nipping at your, er, geraniums...” And here it comes.
Instagram post 2166837817953503284_444552553 Constant companions: If you want to keep good company all winter, grow some good keepers. My house is stuffed with piles of #cucurbita awaiting their time in the oven or soup kettle. Each one is a character, distinctive. On one chair in the mudroom two close cousins in #cucurbitamoschata — the horse collar-shaped one called ‘Tromboncino’ or ‘Tromboncino Rampicante’ snuggles with some ‘Butternut.’ The ‘Tromboncino’ are better eaten green and small as #zucchini but I can’t resist their eventual mad size and shape, big enough to wear around your neck. I use their meat for enriching vegetable stock; the ‘Butternut’ are far more rich and delicious. Seed respectively from sandhillpreservation.com #sandhillpreservationcenter and @turtle_tree_seed (whose ‘Butternut,’ selected for “lastingness” for decades, will keep and keep into next spring or more). #wintersquash #awaytogarden #goodkeeper #cucurbitaceae
Instagram post 2162565040882902064_444552553 Furry fall friend: I look forward to crossing paths with this woolly caterpillar of the #giantleopardmoth this time of year, when its fiery intersegmental bands and plush coat seem to be just the right autumn-into-winter look. Miraculously this tiny animal will overwinter in a woodpile or in the leaf litter, even here in the North, building up a concentration of antifreeze (glycerol I think?) in its cells before the worst weather begins to avoid disaster. (Reminds me of the super-hardy #woodfrog who does similarly. Such heroes.) Swipe to see a beat-up pic of the adult moth, tattered with scales missing at its wing margins, but still dramatic. Unlike various spine-covered caterpillars that can sting you, this one’s hairs (or setae) won’t, but he will roll up tight if touched, in self-defense. I am in awe of such complex strategies of survival, I am. #mothsofinstagram #caterpillars #awaytogarden #hypercompescribonia #hypercompe
Instagram post 2161992098629435854_444552553 Beans are life. I mean, not only do I live on them daily (as I have as a vegetarian for 40+ years) but each one is a seed, a living embryo, a distinct and gorgeous little DNA miracle. I have been inspired by the hashtag #31daysofbeans by @lukasvolger lately, loving watching someone unknown to me (um, who shares my oatmeal thing too apparently...also see his #28daysofoatmeal) dish up the #phaseolus. We both admire bean ambassador Steve Sando @rancho_gordo and this photo might be my fave bean of all that I “met” via Steve years back, big and flat and chestnutty ‘Christmas Lima.’ My advice: don’t wait till Dec. 25 to dig in.
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Welcome! I’m Margaret Roach, a leading garden writer for 25 years—at ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ ‘Newsday,’ and in three books. I host a public-radio podcast; I also lecture, plus hold tours at my 2.3-acre Hudson Valley (NY) Zone 5B garden, and always say no to chemicals and yes to great plants.

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