The “6 bucket” hydropic basket gardens (Dark Armenian, Tar Kadki, Scopattizo, Faqous)

Without enough gardens, it can be difficult to determine where I can grow my plants. This last year, I had too many varieties for myself to handle in the three gardens that I had. While I did acquire a garden at the community college over the winter, I had no idea how to manage a 20x20’ plot consisting primarily of weeds. After looking at what a farmer would be willing to grow and what I wanted to make a priority for my main gardens, I decided to grow two varieties that I had low seed stock with and two new varieties that I had recently acquired seed of. The two established varieties were the Dark Armenian (Tortarello Barese) and the Scopattizo Barese while the two new varieties were the Tar Kakdi (a snakemelon variety from India) and the Palastinian Faqous.

 

 

 

 

I decided that I needed at least six plants, so I would have each host care for six buckets of one cucumber-melon variety. Then I went about trying to find people who would be comfortable with me growing plants in their yards. The owner of the chicken garden was willing to host a set of buckets, two friends at church were also willing. Finally, I found one woman from the community college who was willing to host a set of buckets. With the hosts determined, I then went about starting transplants and transplanting each soil block into the buckets. The most important part of this was labeling. At one point, I had to pull out some transplants because I accidentally forgot to label which variety was which and I accidentally put some of the transplants together.

So here is how each variety did:

The Faqous was my most important variety. For this variety, I found an expensive organic soil business that would deliver a whole yard of high quality growing mix. I had this mix delivered to my friend’s house, then we used a pallet jack to bring it to the correct place in his yard. Then I transferred the hydroponic baskets into the soil. The plants did very well, but the plants went from fruiting to setting seed so quick that the plants quickly died immediately afterwards. It was great that the plants were so efficient, but how quick the plants produced seed caught me a little off-guard. I thought that the plants might last a little longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tar Kakdi grew for a little while, but turned out to not be the variety I was looking for. So instead of trying to fight the heat of the summer, I just gathered all the buckets from this friend and came home with them. My hope for this variety was that it would produce very long thin cucumbers. Unfortunately, it produced misshapen cucumbers with some variations in color.

The Dark Armenian was grown out by a friend of mine who manages a nursery in American Canyon. The plants did relatively well, then started to go downhill. I harvested a little bit of good seed from the fruit that we grew on his property.

 

 

 

 

The Scopattizo Barese were grown on the plot of a friend of mine who, with her husband, does a lot to care for the garden plots at the community college where my new garden plot was. She had some extra space, so transferred some of the struggling hydroponic baskets into the ground, where they did much better than in the buckets. They produced well, though I have yet to harvest all the seeds from these plants.

 

 

 

Lessons Learned: Growing plants in buckets using hydroponic baskets is definitely a short-term solution. I am lucky to get one or two fruit if I am growing in full sun in Northern California. That being said, starting in hydroponic baskets and transferring the plants into a garden or larger plots works relatively well. I will likely see if I can utilize the connections that I have made and grow in one larger container in each garden I am able to next year.

Parthenocarpic Trial in the Greenhouse

Strange and exotic cucumbers have always interested me. The ability of a fruit to do something novel or interesting often spurns the curiosity of most gardeners. For me, this is especially true with cucumbers that can be grown without pollination. The word Parthenocarpy, which is an early 20th century word from the German “Parthenocarpie” which derives its meaning from the green parthenos ‘virgin’ and karpos ‘fruit’. In essence, a parthenocarpic fruit is a virgin fruit, because it is sets without pollination. Parthenocarpy in cucumbers is not a highly common trait in nature.

 

 

 

 

 Both wild cucumbers and most older cucumber varieties are monecious, meaning that they produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. They require a pollinator, such as a bee, to move the pollen from a male flower to a female flower. However, even some monecious cucumber varieties can set female fruit without being pollinated. This ability to set fruit without pollination so intrigued me, that I decided that I needed to do an experiment in which I grew different open-pollinated (non hybrid) cucumber varieties that were touted as parthenocarpic to determine if they lived up to their claims.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

In total, I grew out eight regular cucumber varieties (Cucumis sativus) and one cucumber-melon variety (Cucumis melo). Alphabetically, the eight varieties include Beit Alpha, China Jade, Diva, English Telegraph, English Telegraph Improved, Monika, Muncher, Sikkim and The cucumber-melon Meloncella Tonda di Galatina. The Beit Alpha is a somewhat wrinkly, yet smooth thin-skinned cucumber from Israel, while the China Jade is an Asian long-fruited cucumber with spines. Diva is a “Beit Alpha”-type variety with a little larger fruit than the original Beit Alpha. Diva is an All-American selection winner that was released by Johnny’s Select Seeds. English Telegraph and English Telegraph Improved are both long-fruited English hothouse cucumbers. Monika and Muncher are some small smooth-skinned “Beit Alpha”-type cucumbers as well. Sikkim is a very old Indian storage variety, while the Meloncella Tonda di Galatina belongs to the group of cucumber-melons called “carosello” that originate from the Apulian region of Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to grow out my cucumber varieties in the greenhouse in early spring, when very few bees would be around to pollinate. In addition, I kept my greenhouse closed as long as possible after the vines began to flower and had plenty of spiders with spiderwebs to keep flies and bees from visiting the flowers. When the greenhouse became overheated, I only opened the window and door a little to keep too many critters from visiting. I grew the plants out for about 6 weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, here are my results:

Beit Alpha was parthenocarpic after the first fruit

China Jade primarily produced female flowers. The female fruit held on for a long time even when it was not pollinated. Though most of the female fruit aborted, a couple did not.

Diva had a lot of the female flowers abort. Eventually some flowers did grow.

The English Telegraph and the Telegraph Improved had none of their female flowers set fruit.

The Monika Cucumber was nearly all gynoecious. The vines produced a whole lot of female flowers prior to setting one fruit.

The Muncher cucumber has parthenocarpic tendencies, but never produced an actual fruit. About 4-5 female flowers aborted.

The Sikkim did not produce female flowers until very late. The couple female flowers it did produce did not set fruit.

The Meloncella Tonda di Galatina had a couple female flowers abort. Afterwards, the Galatina produced beautiful fruit with infertile seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So are those varieties that I would classify as having parthenocarpic tendencies:

Beit Alpha: Mostly parthenocarpic

Meloncella Tonda di Galitina

Diva: Only slightly parthenocarpic

China Jade: Very promising. Always trying to set fruit. Only occasionally does. I love the nearly gynoecious tendency of this variety.

Monika: One set fruit. Otherwise extremely productive and nearly, but not fully gynoecious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here are some take-aways that I got from the trial:

-Some companies list varieties that are mostly female (gynoecious) as parthenocarpic

-Some companies list Beit Alpha-type varieties as parthenocarpic, just because it has Beit Alpha qualities

-Some parthenocarpic varieties are not truly parthenocarpic, but have genetics that lead them to express these characteristics when environmental conditions favor this expression

-Most all open-pollinated parthenocarpic cucumber varieties will abort one or two fruit before setting parthenocarpic cucumbers.

-Because parthenocarpic traits are likely inherited, then it would impractical for seed growers to select for this trait unless they had a financial incentive to do so. Otherwise, unless the farmer could specifically select for this trait, the parthenocarpic trait of any one variety will wane over time.

Cleaning Up

Though I wish that everything that I work with in the garden was as easy to clean up as soil blocks, gardening can often include a lot of parts that cannot be reused. Having cleaned up pieces of plastic pots and transplant supplies that quickly decayed and are meant to only last a season, I have done my best to utilize as many high-quality materials as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, today’s gardeners do have some options when it comes to the materials that they work with in the garden. While I prefer not to use plastic at all, some items made for garden use have no other material equivalent. So when the end of the season comes, I work to wash everything down and thoroughly dry everything out.