The cucurbit in our garden~cucumber, squash, melon, bitter gourd and angled luffa could not produce proper fruit during summer as it was too hot for the flower to set fruit properly and lack of pollinators. Did my best to hand-pollinate them. But the fruit just shrivel under the hot hot hot sun. The plants growth were also stunted, they were struggling as best as they could to just survive until the milder weather comes. Now came March and some rain, we see that the cucurbit are now promising us some reward.
The green gem cucumber plants starting to bear some fruits.
Hoping for our first watermelon harvest this year.
Hope the temperature and sun is enough until it is ready to be harvested.
About a hand size now.
Other cucumber varieties that are still growing in the garden and waiting for them to produce are lemon cucumber, white spine cucumber and bavi cucumber (pic below). Last week, I sowed some lemon cucumber and suyo long cucumber, and the seeds has geminated this week. It is trial to see whether it will grow quickly and make it up to harvest stage before the weather is too cold for them. Since many of our cucumbers died in summer.
Our second year of growing banana rockmelon. Last year was a failure, it was cooler last year and maybe the location I chose for them to grow was not suitable. Now we grow them at the spot where we had big success with honeydew melon 2 years ago. Three plants are growing in partial shade. Some fruits are growing and already more than 10cm long. Inter-planting them with pepper plants. The banana rockmelon foliage that sprawled on the ground help to prevent the loss of water from the soil which benefits the rockmelon and pepper.
In January I tried direct-sowing for spaggetthi squash and watermelon to replace the plants that died due to the extreme heat we had. Lucky that they grow well in containers and this week I have spied some female flowers on the plants. Hopefully next week, we have our first 2012 official angled luffa and bitter gourd harvest. Hoping that this month, we finally have some cucurbit harvest. We only had a few odd-looking cucumber shape harvested in summer.
looks fantastic - love that little cuke. The banana rockmelon sounds very interesting, I'll have to look that up.
ReplyDeleteYou even have a watermelon plant that crawls around in your garden.
ReplyDeleteI hope your banana rock melon will be successful this time round. Love this fruit and wish you good harvest for the rest of the melons. Nice job :-D
ReplyDeletementimun tu kalau kurang air mmg mcm tulah buahnya kan... kdg2 kalau musim kemarau sgt.. timun pun boleh rasa pahit.. terkenang masa arwah ayah akak ada dulu seronok masuk kebun petik sayur..
ReplyDeletetembikai pun diana tanam?masyallah..seronok sungguh..macam macam ada....
ReplyDeleteThose are looking fabulous. I've never had any success with melons, not enough hot sun I suspect. I hope your banana one works.
ReplyDeleteall of them look so good! Watermelon?Yummy!
ReplyDeleteGrowing luffa would be so cool! I hope you get some. Cucumbers shrivel up here or get very bitter in our heat as well. Second sowing like you did is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteYou always have so many interesting things growing...enjoy those hard earned cucumbers.
ReplyDeleteYou have some fruits (veg?) that Iwouldn't know how to use. For instance, what do you do with the Angled Luffa?
ReplyDeleteis that watermelon same as the local variety here cos i see the shape quite oval. Hope that you will hv better harvests now that the hot summer is gone. Been raining non stop for the past 2 days here.
ReplyDeleteThey are all looking nice at this point. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
I am hungry already!
ReplyDeleteMKG dear,
ReplyDeleteYummm.....we love the petola...masak lemak putih + suhun + tahu kering + udang with sambal belacan....ikan masin goreng + nasi putih panas. yummmm...... laparlah.... we've been harvesting cili padi from Mama's garden in the sky. purrr....meow!
Love the watermelon!! And need to check what is banana rock melon, don't think I've eaten it before.
ReplyDeleteYour tender loving care of those plants during the baking hot days is being justifiably rewarded. It looks like you should get a nice bounty out of those plants after all.
ReplyDeleteIgnorant me... I learned a new word today... cucurbits... thanks to you...
ReplyDeleteI love rock melon and all the melon families..Kat Terengganu Kelantan watermelon can be found in abundance. Tepi2 jalan byk sangat! Memang selalu geram nak beli but hubby malas berenti..:(
ReplyDeleteWow! I really admire you for many varieties of cucumber.I have grown a only common cucumber.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to your precious watermelon's growing bigger soon as well.
Oh look at that cute little melon! While you have had hot, hot days, we have had so much rain. Wish we could swap and share a bit:)
ReplyDeleteDidn't realised that baby cucumbers looks so scary and hairy!
ReplyDeleteWendy~A rockmelon with a shape of banana. Make it interesting for the children to participate in growing it.
ReplyDeleteRainfield61~A tiny size watermelon. Nevertheless very welcome.
Stephanie~I hope we still have a little more warm weather to make the banana rockmelon successful.
Madihaa~Seronok petik sayur dari kebun sendiri. Timun kena banyak air masa membesar.
Cikmanggis~Cuba-cuba menanam tembikai kali ni sebab anak-anak seronok kalau tengok buah-buahan besar macam watermelon and pumpkin. Biar anak-anak ni kenal rupa pokoknya macam mana. Sekarang ni rajinlah diorang ikut papa dia menyiram masa petang.
Liz~The timing of when they are fruiting is very tricky.Depending whether we still have enough warm weather and sun for them or not. Usually for me if they start fruiting in January or Feb we might have decent fruit. But if they start late the fruit is on the smallish size.
Malar~Maybe the fruit photogenic;).
Tina~We harvested 2 luffa already. We did not ate them for almost a year since the previous harvest. It was very welcome on the dinner table.
Mr. H~ Hope the cold weather will come late. We just have very nice mild weather at the moment and the plants are loving it.
Anonymous~We usually enjoy Angled luffa stir-fry or in soup dishes. Angled luffa is like sponge it absorb flavour and quick to cook.
Lena~The watermelon might be different. The local ones are usually seedless and the seeds are genetically modified to grow seedless watermelon.
Cher~A bit worried with rising humidity that some of our cucurbit are getting sick with powdery mildew.
Autumn Belle~ I can't wait to have a taste of them.
Cat-from-Sydney~Bila nak masak petola dengan suhun and tahu kering asyik tak cukup bahan je. Terliur baca your description...hehehe... Sounds great you have fresh harvest from your balcony.
ReplyDeleteI amsterdam~Its a rockmelon with a shaped of banana. Can't comment about the flavour since we have not harvest it yet.
KitsapFG~The problem at the moment is don"t have much time for harvesting. Some of the edibles have gotten a little bit old than the usual perfect time for picking.
Lrong~Sama-sama belajar:).
TK~Wah musim melon ke kat pantai timur sana. Syok bunyi.
Kumittyi~Hope you have chance to grow different variety of cucumber this year.
Shaz~Wish we have rain each week here. So the plants look fresher and pemalas gardener like me won't have to water that much.
Sean L~Some so scary and hairy. Thorny as well. Pricky feeling.