Cucumbers

Cucumbers are a very space efficient crop, growing readily on a trellis and giving large numbers of fruits per plant.  Vines can reach 12-14' long. Four plants of a standard straight eight type cucumber will easily yield a fruit a day and even more in optimal conditions. 


Planting:

Sow seeds in a sunny location after all danger of frost has passed (early May in Northwest Arkansas).  In square foot gardening , we've found that one plant per square foot provides plenty of production and avoids overcrowding.  Seeds don't germinate 100% of the time.  To increase the odds of a seedling in each spot, sow two seeds in each hole.  Keep well watered until they come up (about a week).  Using scissors, thin the seedlings to one plant per hole by cutting the smallest plant off at its base.

Tips and Tricks:

• Save some money and buy cucumber seed rather than seedlings.  Save unused seeds in a ziptop bag and keep them in a cool, dark place until next year.
• If the soil in your garden is clay based and clumpy, create a pocket of finished compost or peat in which to plant the seeds.  This will hold moisture around the seed and give it a loose medium to push through as it emerges. 
• To reduce fungal disease and maximize space efficiency, provide the cucumbers with a trellis to grow on.  Half of a cattle panel cost $8.00 and gives a solid 8' tall trellis.  
• At the first sign of powdery mildew or downy mildew, treat with Serenade.
• The only other serious problem that we've run into is bacterial wilt.  Once a vine has this disease, there is no treatment.  It is transmitted by cucumber beetles.  Inspect the vines often and if these beetles are found, treat with neem oil.  
• It is normal for cucumbers to have small spines on them.  Run your hand up and down them under cold running water to remove.

Putting Up the Harvest:

• We prefer to eat these fresh.  They store best at room temperature.  We've found that they dehydrate somewhat after several days in the refrigerator.
• They can obviously be pickled.  We haven't yet made pickles, but we suggest following direct instructions from a good pickling book in your first attempt.  You will want to grow a variety of cucumber that is bred to have a size and texture especially for pickling.  An example is Snow's Fancy Pickling.
• Another option is chutney, which can be canned.  As always, we suggest following canning instructions from the ball blue book.

"Green" Beans

Green beans, string beans, snap beans, whatever you call them, they are a summer garden staple.  They can be grown in two ways.  Bush beans grow about two feet tall and do not require a trellis.  They produce all of their beans in a short period of time and are then pulled up.  Pole beans (a.k.a. runner beans) are a vine that can grow 10 feet or more in length and requires some sort of trellis.  They produce a steady supply of beans from early July until the first frost of the year, which is October 15th around here.

We have grown both and have really become firm in our preference for pole beans.  Because of the ability to trellis, pole beans take much less garden bed space than bush beans.  They produce a lot more beans over the course of a season.  They are MUCH easier to pick because they are right there at shoulder/head height.  Bush beans require bending over and searching for beans amongst thick foliage.  The arbor made from a folded cattle panel has really worked out well for us.  We planted beans in the beds on both sides and they have grown up and met at the top.  This has provided great access for picking.

We are growing a variety called the purple podded pole bean.  One reason is that the purple beans stand out against the green foliage, making finding them much easier when picking.  We've found that picking green colored beans is an easter egg hunt with grass colored eggs.  The other reason we like growing the purple beans is that they look cool and are a conversation piece when people visit the garden.  They turn green when cooked.  How neat is that?

Plant the seeds in mid-May with a trellis in place.  As they emerge, train them up to the trellis and they will do the rest.  The vines have a rough texture to them and they will aggressively wrap themselves around and around the trellis as they grow towards the sun.

Tips and Tricks:

• Try to harvest the beans before they get noticeable bulges in them.  At this point they are starting to get too mature and won't be quite as tender as they could be.  They are still very edible if this happens and you will note from the pictures that we had some get to this size.
• Snap the beans by hand and remove the "string" from each side of the beans as shown in the picture above.
• Beans are good for your garden soil.  Being in the legume family, they take nitrogen out of the air and fix it into the soil.  This makes more nitrogen available in the soil for future crops.

Putting up the Harvest:

• Freezing - wash, snap, and destring the beans.  Blanch the beans in boiling water for 3 minutes, then immediately immerse in ice water until cooled.  Pat dry and arrange on a cookie sheet so that they are in a single layer*.  Put them in the freezer for an hour and then put them in ziptop bags or vacuum seal them.  Keep them in the freezer until ready to use.
• Canning - Consult a high quality canning manual such as the Ball blue book.
• Dehydrating - Prepare and blanch the beans as if freezing them.  Dry in a dehydrator until hard as a rock.  They will store almost indefinitely this way.

*The beans won't be stuck together in a mass during freezing, allowing you to take as many or as few as you need from the bag.  

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series. Each Monday we will look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

The garden is growing extremely rapidly right now.  We check our plants daily to ensure that they are staying within their cages (tomatoes) or growing up their trellises like we want them to.  It takes just a day for a cucumber or squash vine to lean over and grab onto a neighboring plant or trellis.  If this happens we unwrap the tendril and guide the vine back to where it needs to be.


Watermelons climbing cattle panels

Spaghetti squash climbing cattle panels

Things to be on the lookout for:

The imported cabbageworm is doing its damage in Northwest Arkansas.  You can see the damage done to some of our broccoli below.  A round of Bacillus thuringiensis has the infestation under control.  See our other post about this pest.


Damage done by the imported cabbageworm

Adult stage of the imported cabbageworm known as the Small White

Weather outlook:
-Warm, upper 80's
-Chance of sporadic rain throughout the week
-Ten day forecast


What's being harvested:

-Broccoli
-Squash and zucchini

-Squash blossoms
-Celeriac leaves
-Basil, mint, and other herbs
-Turnips
-Radishes
-Strawberries
-Green onions


What's coming soon:

-Green tomatoes
-Peppers
-Kohlrabi is almost ready

Trellising, Caging, and Staking

One of the biggest advantages of the raised bed design that we use is the ability to grow a lot of food in a relatively small space.  So how can we grow space hogs like watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, and the like with such a small ground footprint?  As I am sure you have guessed, the answer is we support them and grow them vertically into the air.

Cattle Panels:

The most useful trellis material that we have found are 16' x 50" cattle panels.  They are strong and flexible, have holes large enough to put your hands through for harvesting and guiding the vines, and at $15 each are CHEAP for the value they bring to the garden.  They can be bought at your local Tractor Supply, Lowes, etc.  With a pair of bolt cutters they can be cut into custom sizes and shapes in minutes.  If you don't have bolt cutters, ask the people where you buy them from and they will probably cut them for you.


In the picture above you can see three trellises.  The rainbow shaped trellis on the left will support the spaghetti squash that you see in the wooden bed.  If you have the space to do it, a curved design works better than a strictly vertical trellis as it gives the vine more solar exposure and more support for heavy fruits.  If the vine is well supported by the trellis, it will usually be strong enough to support even heavy fruits.  If the fruits do become too heavy, they can be supported with a sling made from breathable fabric such as old pantyhose.  


Coming from a cinder block bed on the right of the picture, watermelon vines (personal sized variety) will grow up this arched trellis which connects to the spaghetti squash trellis.  Spaghetti squash and watermelon vines grow particularly long (15-20 feet!!!) so full length 16' panels were used.  

Between the two wooden beds we created an arbor by bending a full length panel to fit.  Green beans (pole beans) are planted in each bed and will climb up both sides of the arch.  These vines and fruit weigh very little and just the stiffness of the bent panel will support them.


Due to space constraints in our garden area, our cucumbers are growing vertically on a half a cattle panel (8' tall) secured to two 8' tall t posts.  

Green beans ready to grow up the trellis

Connecting the panels:

The spaghetti squash trellis is connected to the wooden bed with fencing staples at the bottom and at the top it is connected to the top of two t posts with electric fence wire.  The watermelon trellis is up against the cinder block bed at the bottom and is secured to a t post with the electric fencing wire to keep it in place.  At the top it it connected to the spaghetti squash trellis with electric fencing wire.  While we are on the subject, electric fencing wire is marvelous stuff to have around the garden and home.  It doesn't rust and is useful for a ton of things.


Tomato Cages:

The soil in our raised beds is so loose and friable that taller plants need support or they can fall over.  Tomato cages aren't just for tomatoes.  These cages completely surround the plants and provide good support for crops such as eggplants and peppers.  There are many styles available, but we prefer the conical, premade type because they stack inside one another for easy storage through the winter.  Hint: wire the cages together at the top with electric fencing wire to provide more stability.  Many people have good luck with welded wire fencing rolled and wired together to form a cylinder.  One method that we are thinking about experimenting with next year is the Florida weave.  If anyone has any experience with this, let us know in the comments section.


Staking:


Almost anything can be used as a stake. Bamboo, premade plastic covered stakes, and wooden stakes are common.  Put the stake in before planting to avoid damaging the plant's root system.  As the plant grows tie it LOOSELY with a soft material to the stake.  Strips of old pantyhose work great for this.  Ensure that the stake is tall enough for the plant's final height and that it is in the ground deep enough to avoid toppling over during a wind storm.