Gardening gurus!! I need your help!!

[shelleyd2008]

I had no problems whatsoever with pests on my cukes last year! I had cucumbers coming out of my ears!! The chickens were nice and fat, would have been a good time to process

Someone else told me about the 3 Sisters way, but I am planting bush beans this year, so I doubt it would work. I wonder if I can plant the cukes by the corn, so they'd have something to climb on? Maybe I'll just make a trellis for them, and the melons

 

[vfem]

I was told that the cukes with the corn would work too!

Someone had posted an AWESOME companion site on TEG in the forum, better then the one I posted here.

Ok, here is is.... I LOVE this companion page... its VERY in depth.

http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Some things, like tomatoes, you want to ripen before eating. Unless you like green fried tomatoes!

Other things, like summer squashes and cukes, you eat when they are the size you want them to be. You can eat them smaller or let them get a little bigger and if you let them go, they get really, really huge. Their texture changes as they get larger, so that's how most people decide.

 

[briana1975]

Another thing we do is alternate planting our sweet corn and our sunflowers every other year. So on the next season the corn is planted where the sunflowers were the year before and we weed a lot less. Something in the sunflowers helps keep the weeds down.

 

[lisahaschickens]

addressed to the original poster:

as some people have said, cross-pollination only effects what next-year's seed will grow, not this year's fruits. Your cucumbers got huge because they got lots of great sun, heat, and nutrients. All plants in the cucurbita family that we eat before they are mature (cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, etc - things with soft skin and small seeds) will get HUGE if left on the plant too long and they will eventually mature and be tough and stringy and filled with big seeds. With things like pumpkins and melons, we eat them fully mature and this is desirable, so it all depends.

You can definitely plant them all together as long as you give each plant ample room. It won't hurt a thing unless you are planning on saving your own seed for next year. But, always keep an eye on teh cucumbers and zucchini - they can grow to baseball-bat-size nearly overnight in hot weather!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Well that's good to know. I didn't save any seeds last year, and my friend had told me that the cross-pollination would make the watermelons taste weird. They tasted just fine, but the cukes were huge! They were straight-8's, and they never really were straight! But we did have a lot of hot weather last summer

I was getting at least 12 cukes a day from my plants for a while! Finally I just quit picking them, and let the plants die off. They won't regrow on their own, will they?

 

[lisahaschickens]

nope, cucumbers and all of their relatives are annuals like most garden veggies. You could get some volunteer plants if you let any fruits drop and rot on the ground, which could have planted some seeds, but in general with veggie gardens, it's best to start new seeds every year.

The few things that are common in gardens that come back each year (perennials) are: rhubarb, asparagus, artichokes, chives, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries (blue berries, etc... all berries)... some herbs like oregano and thyme... that's mostly what I can think of off the top of my head.

Other than that, start new seeds or buy new plant starts this spring for things like:

tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, celery, carrots, radishes, onions, garlic (both of which can be planted in the fall too), broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, chard, peppers, eggplant, turnips, peas, beans, etc etc.

 

[lisahaschickens]

and, again... cross-pollination can't effect the flavor, size, shape, or anything else about the current crop. That's just not how it works - your neighbor is mistaken. There are things that are good to plant close together, a practice called "companion planting," but that's an inexact science at best. You can google it and start learning about it if you're interested.

 

[redhen]

so...can i plant my cukes with my corn? how do i do this? sounds like a great idea...

 

[karanleaf]

Quote:
Sorry, Reinbeau I have to dissagree with you on that one.
As I have had that situation and have had a current planting fruit effected. You do not want to plant your Squash, gourds , mellons, cucumbers and or pumpkins too close to each other. A cucumber crossed with a cantalope is terriable

and pumpkin crossed with a water melon is not such a tastey treat either

Been there done that

Karan