Despite my effort to continue to water the cucumber plants, the Texas heat turned the vines crispy. I picked off the small remaining cucumbers and also broke open the ear of … corn? that formed on the volunteer plant in my pumpkin patch.
It all went to the chickens. I do have quite a large basil plant that I will harvest before the weather turns cold, and the pumpkin vines are not crispy, but also not producing fruit.
I was ready to let the cucumber vines go for the summer, they were getting crispy in the intense heat and the cucumbers strangely shaped, and as I collected the watering bags, a large American Bumblebee visited the remaining flowers. Ok. I’ll keep the watering bags coming.
I witnessed the pollinators doing their good work on my cucumber plants: Honey bees!
I looked up how far honey bees will fly to forage, and the general consensus seems to be upwards of four miles, with some going farther. That is a rather large circle around our area, so I don’t know if they are wild or a neighbor is keeping bees. We live in an area where either is possible.
My cucumber plants are starting to grow vines! I have a trellis set up in the raised bed and would like them to climb that rather than drape off the sides of the bed. I found it helps to gently hook the questing tendrils around the metal. I wrap the tendril around the post, then hook it back through the loop, like a knot, but not tightened.
I have learned something new. This in itself is not new; I enjoy learning new things and strive to do so often. What I learned about cucumbers surprised me, and made me realize how little I know about horticulture (this is also not new, the things I don’t know about are a vast expanse). I have learned that there are male and female flowers on a single cucumber plant. And, I learned how to tell them apart.
I have learned about this because I have three mounds of nice healthy cucumber plants, and no cucumbers. Nada. Zip. I thought a cucumber was developing, but then it withered away. It turns out that what I saw was the unfertilized stem of a female flower. The female flower has what looks like a tiny cucumber behind the bloom, the male flower does not. My plants have many, many blooms, but the usual pollinators are not visiting, maybe because they were all in the meadow with the wildflowers and these are closer to the house. Yes, we do have an exterminator come and treat the outside of the house, but not the yard or woods. I have seen bees in the meadow and in the front yard, but mostly just dragonflies and ground wasps around the cucumbers. So now I have a soft artist’s paint brush tucked in my egg apron so that I can pretend to be a bee and transfer pollen from flower to flower. Maybe we’ll see cucumbers before the vines die.
Critters and Craft 