Re: [gardeners] Clerodendron & cucumbers
Catharine Vinson (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 26 Jul 1998 15:59:38 +0000
Penny wrote:
> My clerodendron (and my daughter's, and the local nursery's)
> appear to bloom any old time throughout the year. Certainly they
> DO bloom at times in the winter! Will research after my trip to
> St.Louis.
I hesitate to interject myself into this, but I think what MaPat was
trying to ask you is WHICH species of Clerodendron are you growing? It
makes a considerable difference when it comes to answering your original
question. The macrame, btw, sounds truly special....I haven't seen much
of it used since the 60s when we awere all so entranced/appalled/mystfied
by Woodstock and etc., etc.
> On the cukes, the entire veggie bed gets underground watered
> twice a day for 10 minutes, being in absolute full sun. It remains
> a puzzle. At the nursery where I happened to buy this one hill
> of three plants, they said that mine was the 4th complaint about
> the problem. "It's environmental" said the young man. Balloney --
> I feel it's in the stock! We also have another dozen plants from
> seed, a little behind in development. Will be fascinated to see if
> they do the same thing!
Underground watering does not eliminate the possiblity of water stress to
the plants. The condition you describe re the shape of the fruit is
consistent with what happens to cukes when they are stressed for water
while the fruit is developing. The other possibility is incomplete
pollination. Cut a cuke in half lengthwise; look at the seed formation. Is
it even and regular along the entrie length of the fruit? If so,
pollination was complete....if not, you didn't have enough pollinators
visitng the blossom.
Catharine, Atlanta, zone 7b