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2025-08-07 21:32:27 UTC

Carl S. Gutekunst on Nostr: This year's greatest success 🥰 and greatest failure 😭 . I love the Japanese ...

This year's greatest success 🥰 and greatest failure 😭 .

I love the Japanese stripy cucumbers: their pretty scalloped edges, distinctive flavor, and crispness when turned into pickles. I've been trying to grow them since pre-COVID, and always got tons of flowers (usually male) and very little fruit. This year I finally nailed the right combination of high-potassium fertilizer and hand pollination, and had more cucumbers than in the past 5 years combined. And the best tsukemono I've ever made!

Alas, since the departure of our red-shouldered hawks the squirrel population has exploded, and they got these two young ones and the four female flowers that remained, killing the plant in the process.

#Gardening #VegetableGardening #Cucumber