I'm planting this cucumber for the first time. It's promoted as being more productive than Suyo Long, with heat/humidity tolerance and "sweet, buttery, crisp, succulent flavor".
Has anyone grown this cuke, if so, what is your opinion of it's flavor, productiveness, disease resistance; what is it's growth habit? Do you let it roam or trellis it?
Yamato Asian Cucumber - Feedback Request...
Yes I've grown it for three straight years... the first year we grew about 10 varieties and had several taste tests with many different people (we were selling at the farmer's market) and it ALWAYS came out first place! It is crispier and tastier than any other. Last year we grew nothing but the Yamato but this year we're going to try a few different more green varieties because we sort of got sick of it because we had SUCH a huge production. It just keeps on and on!
Thanks Prissy! How long do the vines grow? What trellis system did you use?
Buster
The vines are as long as straight eight variety and most others but not as long as Armenian. I built a 50 x 10 open "shade house" that is about 6.5 ft tall and most of my cukes grew over it and down the other side. I hung a commercial hard plastic trellis from the top of the house and attached it on both sides. I keep this trellis in place and use it for beans, cantalope, tomatoes and cukes. Here's a picture when plants are just starting to grow up it.
I grow a lot of Thai varieties plus 2 I can't remember. Chinese yellow and Phoona ? From India I think. They thrive in our heat. I also grow the Armenian type but it's really a melon.
Hi again Buster~~ yes, I love asian veggies. We've really got the heat, too... that's why I put that shade shelter in. I grow poona kheera! It's really really good, too but very weird looking of course. If you can forget it's a cucumber, the taste is wonderful. I grow armenians too because they're so productive but like you said, they're a melon and I'd rather eat a cantalope! Have you ever tried Kumatsuna? It's like lettuce when really small and then like spinach and then like broccoli when it starts going to seed. It's fabulous! I saved some seeds last year and would be glad to send you some if you like (my veggies are all organic) and it grows all year here!
Prissy
Oh hi lisa, I thought that last message was from buster! If you'd like some seeds, just let me know.... I grew Chinese Yellow, too but it was little sour for me. Do you like it?
HeHe I thought "What?" You may have let the Chinese cuke stay on the vine too long, they were sour if I did that. NO MORE seeds, but thank you for the offer. My family would kick me out of the house. I'm still trying to get my garden planted out, tonight is supposed to get into the 40s in Austin so it will be in the 30s out here. So windy too.
okay.... no seeds!:) I think you're right about the yellow cuke... I couldn't tell when it was ripe! The wind here is gusting at 55, too, just horrible for my babies, some have already died... but 30s! that's terrible! Good luck!
PrissyJo, I love your trellis/shade house! Weather over here in central Texas is awful, hot, dry, very windy; this extreme drought is killing trees and baking the soil into bricks. I can water all day long but next day the soil is dry as dust 4 inches down. I used to mulch with hybrid bermuda hay but can't because of the persistent herbicides used on hay fields, so must purchase expensive alfalfa if I can find it!
I live out in the country and now have a wood rat problem - the drought has brought them into my garden, and they're chewing up everything. The house cat can't keep up and my best barn cat disappeared! I think the rats kidnapped him...
Buster
Hi again Buster! YIKES!!!! that sounds terrible!!! You're not very far south of us and we haven't had a drop of rain or snow since last August. Wind gusts to 55-65 daily. It's only about 90-95 here in the afternoons right now but down to 34 at night so still can't put out tomatoes or peppers. But the RATS!! ooooeeeeoooo! And your poor barn cat!! (I had to laugh outloud at that one) Any ransom demands yet?
I put in two large holly trees out front last year and they died. Don't know if it was the record breaking -9 degree winter or the fact that I couldn't water because the pipes were frozen. Watering is terrible here, too although I've got a small urban lot so it's probably easier than for you... and about every inch is planted in edibles. I got 10 bales of alfalfa last fall and have been using it and some grass clippings and cedar chips to mulch with... if it doesn't get blown away... and it is helping.
My husband convinced me to get a greenhouse this year and it's been up for a couple of months now, completely double covered with 80% shade cloth. It's located in the sun though of course so it's already getting to 115 inside with the shade cloth, fan and misting system. I do love it though... NO WIND! But May is when it gets to 117 in the shade here so don't know if I'll be able to keep anything in there but by then hopefully the wind will be down. It makes gardening QUITE a challenge. Please keep me informed about you, your garden and of course your cats!... this is today's chinese cabbage.
The ground is soooo hard the Fence Post lizards are laying eggs in my raised beds! I encountered one yesterday morning in my tomato row, she didn't appreciate the intrusion! At first I thought the fire ants had her half-way in their mound but when I touched her she zoomed off leaving a hole with a clutch of eggs exposed. She can back later after I left, finished the egg laying and covered the den. Tough lizard - she was missing her front right "hand". Hopefully these lizards are lunching on the zillion baby grasshoppers now invading the garden. I'll have to spray with Spinosad this morning to knock down their population in my potato row, they're making the leaves look like swiss cheese.
Buster
You know, your circumstances sound like the biblical plague!!!!!!!!! You've definitely won at the worst case gardening crisis. I don't have grasshoppers or lizards or fire ants!!! But I had never heard of Spinosad and looked it up. Sounds like you garden organically, too. Have you ever used it before? Hopefully I'll never need it but.... Do you like it? Does it work? I didn't even have to use any safer products or even garlic or pepper spray last year. I think the heat killed all the bugs around here last year.!!
Spinosad is useful when necessary. Like any non-specific pesticide it can harm beneficial insects including bees; if you kill the good guys, you inherit their job! But sometimes you can see BIG problems coming your way, like those little grasshoppers that will grown to be flying hungry eating machines. I noticed a few spiders were hit by the spray - they're toast too, sad to say.
I don't like to use chemicals; I am an organic gardener, the only exception would be dealing with poison ivy invasions.
Temps today will hit 97 and it's only April, we should be in the low eighties...it's going to be a loooonnng hot summer with no rain predicted...
Buster
On the net it sounded like spinosad was basically organic because it's made from a unique fungus but it sounds really potent. I think you had to do something because the lizards couldn't even keep up with the grasshopper population. I don't know what other bigger predator you could find!!! Speaking of bees, I have many water spigots throughout my yard so I could set up my irrigation at optimum efficiency and they're all pvc pipes coming up out of the ground with insulation around the pipe and then another pipe around the insulation and one of my spigots is being used by the bees. They've been there for a couple of months now. At first I just figured they were somehow getting some water from there but it's been so long now, I'm wondering if they're building a hive. What do you think? They surely do keep everything pollinated!
I have a large plastic rain barrel with a recessed area at the bottom where the drainage hose comes out. Bees pack themselves in that hole and I thought they might be setting up shop even though it was too small for a hive. They were just taking advantage of the shade and moisture, after a while they moved on. Perhaps this is the same situation. Perhaps a local bee keeper can help determine what your bees are doing...
Buster
Yes! That sounds exactly like what they're doing in my spigot! It's actually been nice here for a couple of days. Hope your plague is gone and your garden is doing well...
Prissy and Buster
In reference to your posts of the 18th:
You do realize that Passover started that night. Frogs, Grasshoppers, Lizards (wild animals) and now you're bumpping off the First Born with Spinosad no less! Please don't tell me you've had Hail and Eclipse too! Sorry, I couldn't resist. 4 more days to go til the end and I'm getting a bit punchy.
Yehudith
Yehudith~~
I know! I know! :)
I was also thinking your gardening saga was beginning to sound like the Old Testament.
lisa~~ How is your gardening coming? Did you get everything planted? I still don't have my corn, cantalopes, watermelons or cukes in.... but I"m working on it!
Not as far along as I would like to be. It was 37* here in the AM, less then a week ago. Then they said no chance of rain, but it came in with a bang last night. Now its crazy windy and muddy so I don't know how much I'll get done. Everybody around here is just planting out. Theres just been a lot going on and I haven't gotten as much done as I had wanted to.
Basically I'm planting my nursery stock that has gotten too big to ship. Last year it was cold for so long nothing would grow NOW its been in the 90s and the plants are getting too big to ship. But its so windy stuff is actually blowing horizontally, I need tio find something else to think about..... LOL
Well, sorry to make you think about it again.... but... we're having 70mph winds today! and still no rain. But reading what you said, it's REALLY hard to plant in the mud! It was 38 this morning but should be 95 by noon. I don't know why I'm actually feeling so happy and positive about gardening right now... I just can't help it. I love it! This is my chinese cabbage yesterday... I planted them 18 inches apart and should have planted them farther apart
Hey Buster~~ I've got tons of baby scorpions running around.... how's your garden???
One of my trees is hanging on by one root; a sinkhole came up underneath the tree!
Prissy,
Do I envy you. Hanging on be one root do you say? I have tw trees I'd kill to have in that position. Don't envy you the scorpions though.
Hey yehudith~~I bet you have a great recipe for cooking and/or freezing snow peas. Am I right?