Friday, June 3, 2022

The Cucummaru di San Donato is Needing some Refinement

Occasionally when we finally receive something that we have hoped for, the situation turns out just the way we had hoped for, but it seems that more often - the things that we have really want don’t turn out the way we anticipated. The latter circumstance is what I experienced in growing out a southern Italian carosello-type cucumber by the name of the Cucummaru di San Donato.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cucummaru di San Donato < https://biodiversitapuglia.it/mario-paglialonga-custode-del-cummarazzo-san-donato/> was supposed to be really something special from the town of San Donato. Besides having a very long rich history, this cucumber variety looks really cool. While this carosello cucumber variety has been viewed as very special to some growers, I began to have concerns with the San Donato Cucummaru beginning early in the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



It all began with the shape of the fruit. While the San Donato is generally supposed to be a medium-sized cylindrical fruit, the fruit turned out to be very variable in shape. I had some fruit that grew longer, some shorter and had some fruit that were almost round. The variability of the developing fruit made it difficult for me to determine exactly what I was dealing with.
















As the fruit continued to grow, the next thing that became apparent was the color. When I say color, I mean that there were differences in color pattern as well as the shade of color as well as how diffused the color was over the skin of the fruit. There were also differences in the foreground and background color of the fruit. This second concern made me to begin to wonder if I was dealing with a variety with a population that had not been properly maintained.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

In order for a specific vegetable variety to maintain its integrity, the variety must express traits that are specific to just that given vegetable variety. Each time a gardener or farmer saves seed, she is selecting for something. If no specific traits are selected for, the vegetable variety can become what is often referred to as “polymorphic”. The root “poly” means multiple while “morph” refers to a physical change. While polymorphic can specifically refer to a variety’s shape, it often refers to multiple aspects of the fruit’s expression including shape, size, color, taste, texture, etc. Polymorphism occurs when there is such a large span of genetic variation in the germoplasm that the physical expression in multiple fruits from the same seed can look like the grower is dealing with completely different varieties of the same vegetable. While diversity is a valuable thing in developing a new variety, it is often considered a very negative trait for fruit marketability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


I can deal with growing a cucumber variety that has some variation, but there is one trait that I do not tolerate. That of bad taste. Unfortunately, upon tasting the fruit of the San Donato, I found that poor taste was yet another “polymorphic” trait which had crept into the population, which meant that I had to taste fruit from each plant to determine which plants to cull (remove from the population) in order to save the remainder of the fruit. By the time the issue with taste had become apparent, it was too late to start a second crop. All plants that produced poor-tasting fruit were removed, but the rest needed to be left in place to ensure that enough good seed could be gathered from the remaining fruit.





















As the summer drew to an end and powdery mildew began to spread over the plants, I felt done with trying to grow out the San Donato di Cucummaru. Given how rare this variety is, I will refrain from judging whether I was given genetically poor seed or not. Having started this variety near the end of the summer, the shape, color and taste of the fruit was so variable that I only had time to focus on improving the taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




Sometimes what we want is given to us just the way we had imagined but at other times, the thing we want is given to us in a way that it requires work and time to mold it into what it ought to be. This is often the way with gardening. I can visit my garden again and again, thinking that I will teach it how to behave and grow what I want it to. But my garden already possesses most of what it needs to be successful. When I am willing to change my gardening practices to align with the needs of my garden, I notice the health of my plants improve - not because I exerted my will to tame the “wild” aspects of my soil, but because I opened myself up to learning truths that the garden already knows.

Friday, May 27, 2022

I Just Keep Growing the Striped Carosello Leccese

With all of the growing of cucumbers that I do, I don’t always get to eat as much as I would like. Despite growing them twice in 2019 and once with a farmer in mid 2020, by later in the season in 2020, I knew I would be ready to enjoy some more Striped Carosello Leccese, so I planted some in the fertile garden.



 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After years of growing carosello and other cucumber-melons, I really get to a point where I just want to enjoy the fruit – at least occasionally. The tender, yet crisp texture, the rich complex flavor, the beautiful light and dark green fruit. Everything about the Striped Carosello Leccese just makes my mouth water.














Growing later on in the season inevitably exposes my plants to powdery mildew and this year was no exception. Like the consistency of the change of season, the warm days and cool moist mornings welcome in the season of powdery mildew like clockwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


While I was a bit frustrated with getting powdery mildew again, gardening is always a game of chance. Gardeners are almost always trying to squeeze as much productivity as they can out of their soil with every possible hour of sunlight that they can. But as soon as disease begins to take hold, leaving plants in the ground any longer than is absolutely necessary is asking for trouble. In my garden, disease is an unwelcome guest. If I don’t remove diseased plants as soon as possible, I’m just inviting the disease to take up residence. No thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a side note, the Scientific Gardener blog has been going for over 10 years now. While I am not the source of all gardening knowledge or even pretend to be, I have learned some things that have helped me to be more successful in my gardening endeavors. Looking towards the future, I hope that your gardening experience is one of continual growth and learning. Try something new, experiment a little, be willing to learn from your garden – because the garden is waiting for you, if you are ready for yet another adventure.

Friday, May 20, 2022

Meloncella Galatina Double Check

As a seed saver and seller, I have to be very careful to keep each variety of cucumber and melon separate from each other. Specific protocol must be followed to ensure each variety is what is stated on the label. To do this, I generally keep each batch of seed properly labeled and separate from other varieties beginning with seed extraction, fermentation (if needed) to drying, to further processing and finally to long-term storage of the viable dry seed. When one is dealing with multiple varieties of seed that look identical to each other, it can be easy to mix things up.

 

 


 

 

 

One day while I was processing more than one kind of seed on the same day (something I don’t recommend) and was working on a specific variety in an unlabeled container. After being distracted by a movie my family was watching, I suddenly realized that I no longer remembered which variety of cucumber I was dealing with. While I did suspect the seed was the Meloncella Galatina, I could not be sure. So I labeled the seed as “Likely Meloncella Galatina”, sprouted a few and started growing it out in my greenhouse.












 
 
 After growing in a 10 inch hydroponic basket for a while, I discovered that the variety in question was indeed the Meloncella Tonda Galatina. What a relief!