Cucumber - Yang Betina Dah Keluar, Berbuah Pun Sudah

Inilah dia bunga betina yang boleh menghasilkan buah

Kalau seminggu yang lepas mengadu tentang semuanya bunga jantan, namun hari ini alhamdulillah tiada lagi aduan2 yang tidak bersemangat itu. Selepas beberapa hari, seperti kata Ibu Qistina (tunggu ia akan muncul kemudian), bunga pompuan (errhh..bunga betina) pun muncul dengan galaknya. Alhamdulillah dengan izinNya banyak yang telahpun menjadi buah. Jom layan gambar buah2 kecil dengan pelbagai rupa bentuk. 

 Yang ini berbuah diatas tanah

Inilah pokok2 yang telah berjasa.

Setelah pokok2 ini berbuah nampaknya kena mula menanam batch yang baru kerana jika ditunggu selesai menuai buah2 ini baru hendak menanam akan mengambil masa yang agak lama pula untuk menunggu untuk hasil yang baru pulak..eloklah ditanam berterusan. Sedang mencari ruang yang sesuai...

The 4th Batch of Cucumber for The Year

Cucumber yang ada dikebun sekarang ini adalah yang batch ke 4 yang ditanam pada tahun ini. Honestly daripada bacth yang pertama hingga ketiga memang tidak memuaskan. Malah batch yang ke 2 dan ke 3 dikira sebagai kegagalan kerana tidak mendapat hasil, hanya dua tiga biji buah dan dibiarkan menjadi benih...fuhhh.  So where/ what I should put the blames on? 

• Myself  - cucumber yang tidak sesuai pada musim lebih sejuk ditanam pada musim sejuk. Sebabnya? kerana menanam hanya ikut variety kegemaran, bukan variety yang sesuai. Last last, sia -sia jer lah sebahagian usaha. Moral of the story - tanamanlah ikut kesesuaian variety, bukan ikut kesukaan tukang kebun.
• Weather - perubahan cuaca yang kadang-kadang tak menentu, dari sejuk kepanas, panas kesejuk. Hujan yang bertaburan tinggi  yang tidak menentu juga merosakkan tanaman sewaktu pokok tengah mula berbuah. 

So cucumber yang I've planted pada 15/9/12  adalah dari variety yang biasa sahaja, iaitu bukan dari favourite,

Yang banyak dijual dipasar2 mahupun supermarket (banyak biji)

Remember dalam entry yang lepas ada cerita pasal heavy rain dan cucumber yang ditanam itu telah menjadi sebegini rupa,

Ditimpa hujan lebat pada 25/9/12 (3 minggu lepas)

Setelah pokok2 dibaikpulihkan dan dek kerana hujan yang agak kerap kebelakangan ini , pokok2 telah menjadi semakin subur dan lihatlah keadaan mereka pada hari ini, amat menyenangkan mata memandang,

Sulur paut juga telah terbentuk

Awalnya ingat hendak biarkan menjalar atas tanah jer (seperti orang2 disini biasa buat), namun oleh kerena pokok2 sekitarnya masih kecil, takut akan mengganggu pembesaran pokok2 lain, jadi simple trellis atau junjung dibuat pada pagi ini,

Inilah variety yang kurang sesuai dengan cuaca lebih sejuk tetapi rasanya sangat sedap berbanding dengan variety yang ditanam sekarang,

Yang variety seperti ini ada tak kat tanahair? mungkin ada tapi  rasa macam jarang jumpa...

Cucumbers Development - Flowering

Planted on 15/7/12..

After almost 7 weeks, now flowering..

Blooming

 Baby cucumber?

 Male flower

 Female flower

The plants

Flowers & Pollinating : 
Cucumber plants have both male and female flowers, but only the female flowers will produce fruit. However, in order to do so, they must be pollinated by pollen from the male flower. This important transfer is usually conducted by bees, but the gardener can increase the quantity of fruit by carrying out some judicious hand pollination. The female flowers are easy to identify because each has a tiny cucumber at the base. Use a small brush to remove some of the pollen from the male flower and gently brush it onto the centre of the female flower. 

More progress details : Live updates - cucumber

Cucumbers Development - Week 5

Planted on 15/7/12 

First tendril,

Should You Remove Cucumber Tendrils

There is no reason to remove the tendrils from your cucumber plant, even if you do not plan on letting them grow horizontally. Removing the tendrils will cause more harm than good and create a wound that allows bacterial organisms that would harm or kill the cucumber plant.

The best thing to do is to let these tendrils grow naturally. You may even want to consider providing supports for your cucumber plants to grow up. Not only does this provide a more natural environment for your cucumber plants but it will save you some room in your garden. 

(source:http://www.gardeningknowhow.com)

The plants,

More progress details : Live updates - cucumber

Trellis for Cucumber

Previous entry : cucumber batch#3 (0 to16 days)

Planted on 15/7/12, now almost one month old,

7 plants - 4 healthy plants on the left, 2 in the middle much smaller
 (seeds sowed few days later for replacement)

Some branches from Pokok Bunga Kertas (no bamboo available) for making trellis

Simple trellis is ready now ..

Cucumber - batch #3 (0 to 16 days)

Assalamualaikum,
I really like to eat fresh cucumber from our garden, somehow due to the weather that is much cooler now, two times I've planted cucumber somehow i didn't get good results out of it, (very small amount of fruits produced). Some varieties grow good during cool season like Supermarket's variety, somehow i don't prefer that variety. Not give up yet, this time again I planted cucumber from the Slicemaster variety (taste better than the normal variety that we used to get from supermerket, good size and greenish skin color). I planted outside the greenhouse so that they would expose more to the sun..

The garden bed was ready few days earlier so on 15/7/12 I've sowed some cucumber seeds. I put more than one seed in a hole to increase the chances of the seeds to germinate. If too much come out, we can  remove some later.

On 21/7/12- Germinated

On 23/7/12 (3 days old)

 On 31/7/12 (11 days)

On 6/8/12 (16 days old)

Alhamdulillah 7 plants are growing good now, hopefully all of them will survive till the end cause i don't like to buy from market the veges that i can grow at home.


Some facts about cucumber (source - http://www.nutrition-and-you.com)
 It is one of the very low calories vegetable; provides just 15 calories per 100 g. It contains no saturated fats or cholesterol. Cucumber peel is a good source of dietary fiber that helps reduce constipation, and offers some protection against colon cancers by eliminating toxic compounds from the gut. It is a very good source of potassium, an important intracellular electrolyte. Potassium is a heart friendly electrolyte; helps reduce blood pressure and heart rates by countering effects of sodium.They are surprisingly have high amount of vitamin K, provides about 17 µg of this vitamin per 100 g. Vitamin-K has been found to have potential role in bone strength by promoting osteotrophic (bone mass building) activity. It also has established role in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in their brain.

In between these two cucumber fruits

Which one do u think would survive longer and become a bigger fruit?

This one,

Or this one,

From my observations, the first would survive longer compare to the one in the second photo. This is because when the flower detached from fruit very early, in less than a week - the fruit would slowly drying out and would not continue to grow.

The Enemy of Cucumber

Would any of you wish to have a garden with date palms and vines, with rivers flowing underneath, and all kinds of fruits for him therein, while he is striken with old age, and his children are weak (not able to look after themselves), then it is struck with a fiery whirlwind, so that it is burnt Thus does Allah make clear His Ayat to you that you may give thought. (2:266)

Assalamualaikum

Lately I realised that one of our cucumber fruit stop growing, not like days  before where you can see the differences everyday by looking at the size,

Few days after i realised that there must be something wrong with the fruits, further checking, i found something like scratches on the skin,

 Then i found 1 insect mingled around the plant, flower and fruits, that look like this,

 

 I guess the fruit's growth problem probably caused by this insect.