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| Cucumber 'Marketmore' |
This summer I attempted to grow cucumbers in our community garden plot. After planting the seeds for three different varieties in early June, I was excited to see how they would turn out.
The results were a bit lackluster, but I did end up with one average-sized cucumber. I was happy to walk away from my internship with one cucumber in hand—it tasted pretty good and had a fresh crispness!
The three varieties I planted were 'Marketmore', 'Parisian', and 'Platinum'. The 'Marketmore' was the one that managed to make a decent cucumber before I left.
In the first few weeks, the 'Marketmore' and 'Parisian' were growing steadily, but the 'Parisian' vines grew much more quickly. I had to replant the 'Platinum' seeds because the first set never came up. Although it had a delayed start, it began to grow nicely.
Towards mid-July, we saw a baby cucumber on the 'Parisian' plant, which made me hopeful. In the next few weeks though, the plant began to droop and the vines started to die-off. Sadly, the baby cucumber didn’t continue to grow and shriveled with the rest of the plant. This past week the 'Parisian' plant was completely dead.
We pulled the plant from the plot, so hopefully whatever disease killed it doesn’t infect the other plants. The other two seem healthy and have lots of flowers (though the 'Marketmore' is much larger now), so hopefully they’ll produce a few more good cucumbers before summer ends.
How is your vegetable garden growing this week?
About the author: Rosie Kean is a senior multiplatform journalism and English major at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is from Macungie, PA. This summer, she is an editorial intern at Washington Gardener.
About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 7th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above
About the author: Rosie Kean is a senior multiplatform journalism and English major at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is from Macungie, PA. This summer, she is an editorial intern at Washington Gardener.
About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 7th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above
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