Cucumbers

The hot drought has turned into a hot monsoon in my yard. It has been raining nearly every day. This is the time of year when it nearly kills you to mow the grass the every 3 days it needs it or pull out all the weeds taking over. This is the time of year when some plants rot from all the rain and the bugs and diseases really go into overdrive. Usually I and most Florida gardeners consider this the off season, but I like to try in spite of myself.

Cucumbers are one of those plants that don't like this weather. My spring cucumbers have long been pulled out. I wanted to try and see if I could get some more cucumbers into the summer. I planted only two plants in the Earthbox, instead of the recommended four, to give my little babies all the room and nutrients they could want. I put them next to my crape myrtle tree so they would have only part sun and maybe hide from the insects. I selected the variety called Corinto from Johnny Select Seeds. This variety is described on the Johnny's website as follows:

New! Excellent flavor with a good disease resistance package.


Corinto starts early and continues vigorous production of very dark green, uniform 7-8" slicing cucumbers, despite cool weather or heat. Small seed cavity. Skin is thick enough to endure harvesting and handling, but thinner than the average slicing cucumber. Gynoecious and parthenocarpic for greenhouse production.

Well I can attest that all those promises seem to be true. Look at my pictures taken today on July 4th! There are zero insect or disease problems so far and I have sprayed nothing.