About 3 inches right now but will grow up to 3 feet according to the packet. I'm growing these inside the greenhouse and 'Kaiser Alexander' out in the garden because the old crone that runs the laundrette says that bitterness will result from commingling different varieties. Only not in those words.
3 comments:
I haven't really grown that many cucumbers, so I'm not really much of an expert. Last year I grew about 5-6 varieties on my roof next to each other and they all came out fine.
The isolation distance for saving cucumber seeds is quite far, so I don't think just putting them in your greenhouse is far enough to prevent commingling. I've really only heard this as an issue for super sweet F1 varieties of corn, which lose some of their sweetness when they cross pollinate with normal corn.
My experience is that bitterness in cucumbers usually comes from insufficient watering. Cucumbers need a really astonishing amount of water! Much more than tomatoes or most other veggies.
I'm growing Brown Uzbeki this year for seeds. I think this is very similar to Kaiser Alexander, but I'm not sure. It would be interesting to grow them next to each other and compare, maybe next year...
Well, I am watering like... like a mad thing that waters allot. But I'm a complete novice to greenhouse growing so I won't know until it's too late if it was enough. I've been carefully hand pollinating the cucumbers with a rabbit's fur brush because I didn't think that I could count on any fly-by fertilization.
We can compare cucumbers in September.
I don't think I'll have any in September. I was down to 10 seeds this year, and 5 or 6 of them are left growing on my roof.
The seed company I bought them from (Baker Creek) has dropped them from their collection. In the SSE listings they are only offered by one person who warns they are almost extinct in their native Uzbekistan and she may not be able to offer them via the SSE much longer.
My priority this year is saving some seeds! I intend to use all of my plants for this.
Of course if they are really pretty much the same as Kaiser Alexander as I suspect, that may be why no one is interested in them anymore.
I'm pretty sure I'll have some of the seeds with me in September, if you want to try growing them yourself.
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