A Second go with the Martina Franca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Conqueror Cucumber

Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to snap enough pictures of the Conqueror cucumber. The Conqueror is an extremely productive, long parthenocarpic English-style cucumber. The drawbacks to the variety are that the fruit does tend to get a little bitter in hot temperatures, the fruit doesn’t grow straight unless trellised and the seed is extremely difficult to harvest. Otherwise, the vines pump out a ton of high-quality fruit.

 

I’m really grateful that I was able to grow the Conqueror in 2024 because in 2023 the cucumber beetles were so bad that I was hardly able to harvest anything. Fortunately I was able to avoid the cucumber beetles on the farm land altogether in 2024 by planting the soil blocks into raised beds in-town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One funny thing did happen over the course of the season. When harvesting the vines, I found a cucumber I didn’t expect. It had grown into and back out of a deli cup. – making a nearly perfect V shape.

Greenhouse Ogurdynya Tohum Russian Cucumbermelon in the Spring

For quite a while I had heard that there was a cucumber-melon that was being grown in Russia. As far as I could tell, it was something that was specific to the region and could be found no where else. Then by happen-chance, around the same time that the threat of war was mounting along the Ukrainian border in February of 2022 – I found the variety for sale on Etsy. I ordered the cucumber-melon cultivar from Oreshka seed, then I crossed my fingers and waited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually the seed packets arrived, and I grew it once in 2022. And it was a good thing that I did. The initial seed that I received hardly germinated in the spring of 2023. So I sowed my seed fresh seed early in 2023 and watched the plants grow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as I had noticed previously, the vines were somewhat spiky – much like a Cucumis sativus. However, unlike the C. sativus, the flowers were much more like a Cucumis melo in that the flowers were much more fuzzy than spiky. While I am not specifically sure what variety it is, I believe that it is either an Asian pickling melon (C. melo var conomon) or a snapmelon (C. melo var momordica). 

 

 

 

 

This “Russian cucumbermelon” is somewhat fun to grow in that the vines are very weedy and tend to sprawl from the center. Each plant has thin-stemmed vines that frequently branch off from the primary stem with their own side stems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The light fruit with mottled bands has a somewhat hard crunchy outer layer and a more tender slightly sweet inner flesh when young. As they mature they possess a sweet crisp outer layer with a softer sweet juicy center. The mature fruit eventually end up splitting open as they mature – much more like a snapmelon than an Asian pickling melon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All-in-all I really enjoyed growing the Ogurdynya Tohum Russian Cucumbermelon. They are simple, easy and somewhat tasty. As a whole, they are a lot of fun to grow in a small space, such as a greenhouse.