2024-04-12 07:00
I really enjoyed growing the Çengelköy cucumber this last season. It was mild, slightly sweet, thin-skinned and quite good. Somewhat like the Beit Alpha, the Çengelkö… Read More
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The Scientific Gardener Blog
scientificgardener.blogspot.com
Tags:
cucumber
cucumis
unknown carosello
powdery mildew
bono
carosello
disappointment
growing
mezzo lungo
garden
A blog about research gardening in warm climates - specializing in Carosello and other Cucumbers.
2024-04-05 07:00
When one thinks of the word ‘bushy’ they may think of a plant that is shorter or more compact. At least that is what I think of if someone says the word ‘bushy’ to me… Read More
2024-03-29 07:00
One of my very favorite regular cucumber varieties that I grew this last year was the Bush Crop. An extremely compact variety, I would even call this variety a ‘dwarf’ cucumber… Read More
2024-03-22 07:00
I decided to try out the Bono because it was a hard-to-find cucumber variety. The fruit grew very well, without any issues. The primary concern that the vines encountered while growing was i… Read More
2024-03-15 07:00
While the origin of the plant species Cucumis melo is most often associated with Africa, there are also Cucumis melo varieties that are Asian in origin. Less domesticated than the African me… Read More
2024-03-08 08:00
After growing out an unknown carosello cucumber variety, I decided to try out a Mezzo Lungo Polignano carosello variety in the 1-yard grape bin. This variety was one that I had tried out pre… Read More
2024-03-01 08:00
One of the things I like doing when gardening is giving cucumber varieties a second chance. Back in 2018 I grew an unknown carosello cucumber variety. It was oval and ranged from being very… Read More
2024-02-23 08:00
I have given my younger daughter plenty of choices concerning what to grow in the girl’s garden plot. We usually grow tomatoes and potatoes as well as some sweet potatoes. She likes sw… Read More
2024-02-16 08:00
2023 provided me with much joy and excitement, but also much work and disappointment. With gardening, as with life, it seems that joy in one area is somehow interconnected with sorrow in ano… Read More
2024-02-09 08:00
After many years of looking, I was finally able to purchase some Sonata biofungicide for my garden in 2023. This specific fungicide is meant to specifically go after fungus-related diseases… Read More
2024-02-02 08:00
Just to provide some context on the “Speckled Friendship” Carosello, this carosello variety originated from a packet of mixed-up, possibly polymorphic Carosello Spuredda Leccese… Read More
2024-01-26 08:00
So here are a few pictures of insects that I found throughout the season. The first picture is of a mantid ootheca I found while walking at a nearby creek on New Year’s Day. The next i… Read More
2024-01-19 08:00
A friend in Indonesia told me about a striped cucumber that appeared to be some kind of pickling melon. I asked him to try growing it to see if it was bitter at all. After trying it out and… Read More
2024-01-12 08:00
In 2021 I discovered a speckled carosello cucumber from a packet of seeds I grew in the greenhouse. I saved seeds from that one fruit and in late July of 2022, I transplanted some seedlings… Read More
2024-01-05 08:00
For many years, I had been trying to source seeds of the Beit Sahour Faqous or Fakkous. While I have not been able to source that specific variety, I was able to source the general Palestini… Read More
2023-12-29 08:00
For quite a while I had heard that there was a cucumber-melon that was being grown in Russia. As far as I could tell, it was something that was specific to the region and could be found no w… Read More
2023-12-22 08:00
Since reading the The Resilient Gardener, I
have been looking forward to growing more of Carol Deppe’s vegetable varieties.
One of the more recent varieties, called Goldini zucchini, w… Read More
2023-12-15 08:00
In February of 2022, I ordered the Ogurdynya Tohum Russian Cucumbermelon from Oreshka seed. I had seen the Ogurdynya online many times before, but I never had the opportunity to order it bef… Read More
2023-12-08 08:00
From the moment that I learned about the Paesana di Soleto, I was highly interested in growing it. The odd shaped fruit with incredibly tender texture interested me. This variety, introduced… Read More
2023-11-24 08:00
There are a number of reasons why fava beans are of my very favorite crops to grow. First is that the seeds are very easy to handle. With seeds so large, they are very easy to sow and work w… Read More
2023-11-17 08:00
While not as safe from critters as planting in the greenhouse, planting in a wine barrel worked out pretty well for me this winter. I learned three things… Read More
2023-11-10 08:00
After many years of fighting squirrels and slugs in the winter, I decided to try something a little different in the winter of 2022-2023. Specifically, I decided to try growing away from the… Read More
2023-11-03 07:00
In 2022, as I was driving back from a local produce stand called Larry’s, I saw the large cubic yard grape harvest macro bins for sale. That gave me some ideas. After calling the phone… Read More
2023-10-27 07:00
While I did purchase soil from a local landscape supply company early in the season it turned out that whatever was in the soil was not necessarily appropriate for growing vegetables in. So… Read More
2023-10-20 07:00
The Green Finger is one of the best tasting Cucumis sativus varieties that I have had. Though it looks somewhat like a Beit Alpha type, its moderately thin skin is not as wrinkly as a Beit A… Read More
2023-10-13 07:00
I tried growing out the Miniature white in 2022 just to try it out. They were pretty tasty little white cucumbers. Ideal for snacking. Due to growing them so late into the season, there wasn… Read More
2023-10-06 07:00
While I was not able to harvest any native creeping cucumbers from a relative’s home in Louisiana in 2021, I was able to acquire some seeds of the creeping cucumber (Melothria pendula)… Read More
2023-09-29 07:00
As farmers and gardeners, we occasionally try to push the limits of what is possible. This is what occurred with me in the summer of 2022. I had already grown out one crop of carosello and w… Read More
2023-09-22 07:00
After stabilizing the selection of the Checkered Scopattizo carosello variety that I discovered, I was very excited to share my discovery with others. But as many have found about something… Read More
2023-09-15 07:00
While I did stumble upon the checkered Scopattizo carosello back in 2018, the desire for a checkered carosello variety came long before that time. Since growing out the Carosello Polisello m… Read More
2023-09-08 07:00
Whether in print or online, perusing colorful garden catalogues in the cold winter is often more exciting than window shopping at a department store. The possibilities of color, taste and va… Read More
2023-09-01 07:00
Despite how incredibly popular one of my carosello cucumber varieties has been, for years I have struggled with some of its greatest drawbacks. The variety in question is the Tondo Manduria… Read More
2023-08-25 07:00
Many years farmers and gardeners try
to push their growing season as far into the unseasonable conditions as
possible. While I don’t fully understand the psychology behind this absurd… Read More
2023-08-18 07:00
Immediately after I could distinguish
the smooth Carosello Leccese from the other more scalloped fruit in my Carosello Leccese trial, I cleared the smooth-fruited plants out in order to make… Read More
2023-08-11 07:00
For years I have been seeing two kinds of Carosello Barese being sold by companies and grown by Italian gardeners. This has lead me to feel a great deal of confusion as to what the term "Car… Read More
2023-08-04 07:00
I received the Scopattizo San Luigi from a farmer in Italy named Fabio in late 2021/Early 2022 and planted them in the spring. Unfortunately, I unknowingly planted the seedlings into poor so… Read More
2023-07-28 07:00
In late 2021 and early 2022 I grew out a cover crop. I grew out some mustard greens in order to clean out my soil at the raised bed garden. … Read More
2023-07-21 07:00
Along with many other cucumber-melon varieties, I decided to grow the Meloncella di San Donato in my experimental college garden. I wanted to grow out the San Donato first to attempt grow ou… Read More
2023-07-14 07:00
In order to expand my gardens and find opportunities to grow more trial varieties, I started a garden plot at Solano Community College in January of 2022. The plot I was provided with was a… Read More
2023-07-07 07:00
Thinking it wise to get some garden soil to add to my gardens, I purchased what a local landscape supply company called “garden soil”. Not just one yard, but 3 full yards. I made… Read More
2023-06-30 07:00
Back in 2017, I happened upon a Facebook post by an organization called Biodiverso di Puglia about a farmer named Luigi, who had discovered a new type of cucumber-melon. One day, in the cour… Read More
2023-06-23 07:00
Without enough gardens, it can be difficult to determine where I can grow my plants. This last year, I had too many varieties for myself to handle in the three gardens that I had. While I di… Read More
2023-06-16 07:00
Strange and exotic cucumbers have always interested me. The ability of a fruit to do something novel or interesting often spurns the curiosity of most gardeners. For me, this is especially t… Read More
2023-06-09 07:00
Though I wish that everything that I work with in the garden was as easy to clean up as soil blocks, gardening can often include a lot of parts that cannot be reused. Having cleaned up piece… Read More
2023-06-02 07:00
While I usually don’t take pictures of all that goes on behind the scenes, here are a few pictures of my 2021 harvest.  &hell…Read More
2023-05-26 07:00
So this is a possible garden plot that I could work on. I was told that a gentleman had some land that I could grow on. Unfortunately, the land owner did not have any water on the site that… Read More
2023-05-19 07:00
While I was visiting with a sister-in-law in Louisiana, I noticed a spindly vine with leaves that looked very familiar to the cucamelon. Sure enough, it was the Meleth… Read More
2023-05-12 07:00
I am grateful for the opportunity I had to have my Striped Carosello Leccese cucumbers grown to seed by a Rio Linda farmer in 2021. We grew over 1 ton of cucumbers, with the majority of the… Read More
2023-05-05 07:00
Back in 2020, I had a really good situation in that I was finally able to grow out one of my cucumber varieties with a local farmer. I had set aside several hundred dollars for him to grow o… Read More
2023-04-28 07:00
At the same time as I was planning out my Mezzo Lungo carosello trial, I was looking for a replacement for 4-inch soil blocks. Having sold off my 4 inch cubic soil blocker in 2020, I worked… Read More
2023-04-21 07:00
Prior to a 6-week trip, I tried to acquire access to part of the fertile garden for growing out a very long-season cucumber variety, called the Gagon. Unfortunately, that didn’t work o… Read More
2023-04-14 07:00
Sometime after 1500, after Italian sailors had colonized the islands around Sardinia, they brought over a group of Tunisians from Africa to colonize the area. Along with other things, these… Read More
2023-04-07 07:00
Me at the end of a day of cucumber seed processing. This was the first time I have ever processed more pounds of cucumbers than I weigh. Read More
2023-03-31 07:00
One of my very favorite cucumbers to grow in 2021 and one of my all-time favorite heirloom regular cucumbers is the Yok Kao. This variety grew quickly after being transplanted just before Ma… Read More
2023-03-24 07:00
For years, I have been offering seed of the Carosello Mezzo Lungo of Polignano and Mezzo Lungo of Barese melons (Cucumis melo) that are grown immature as cucumbers. However, until recently … Read More
2023-03-17 07:00
While I would love to continue blogging and running a seed business, there is only so long I can run my little shop by myself. Over time, in order to ensure I leave a lasting legacy, it is i… Read More
2023-03-10 08:00
Seeds of the Ayra cucumber came into my possession through a USDA germplasm accession from Rajasthan, India. The plants grew very similar to other Cucumis melo that I have grown before and c… Read More
2023-03-03 08:00
I grew out the Badem Acur in 2021 as part of my international cucumber-melon trials. Similar to what Americans would call an Armenian Cucumber, a cucumber-melon is a Cucumis melo that is gro… Read More
2023-02-24 08:00
This was an interesting variety I thought that I could try. In a whim, I decided to try grow a yellow cucumber cultivar. The source for my seed was Baker Creek Seed, which described this var… Read More
2023-02-17 08:00
After several years, lots of work and constantly investing my time and energy into improving the soil, I decided to finally hang my hat up at the chicken garden – at least as it pertai… Read More
2023-02-10 08:00
One of the primary reasons I decided to grow the Shintokiwa cucumber variety was because other had told me that it was very good. It was apparently introduced to the greater seed community b… Read More
2023-02-03 08:00
Right before leaving on a trip in 2021, I knew that I needed to harvest the Carosello Spuredda Leccese Scuro. I was going on a trip that would last for over a month. If I left the fruit on t… Read More
2023-01-27 08:00
Very rarely do I come across a variety as good as the Carosello Spuredda Leccese Scuro. This is a dark green variety with a smooth skin and an exceptionally good rich flavor. While I had gro… Read More
2023-01-20 08:00
You may have noticed that some of the pictures that we have include a new member of the family. She is a Jack Russel Terrier mix of some kind or another. We picked her up from a local shelte… Read More
2023-01-13 08:00
So back in the fall of 2020 I thought of a fabulous idea. What if, instead of going through the work of growing another cover crop this winter, I just fallow the garden instead? With that th… Read More
2023-01-06 08:00
Over the last winter, I decided that it was time to clean up the soil in the entire garden. While most people would have concerns with sterilizing soil, after growing cucumbers in my plot fo… Read More
2022-12-30 08:00
For those who have never composted before, it is pretty simple. Generally speaking, you put a bunch of food stuff (not meat, dairy or fats) in a pile, they decompose and eventually nice soil… Read More
2022-12-23 08:00
One day my daughter was eating a pepper and asked me if she could plant the seeds. Having dealt with her already planting a peach tree and another unknown tree seed, I was glad to tell her t… Read More
2022-12-16 08:00
So I decided to grow the Mezzo Lungo Barese in the Fall. This was after previously growing it earlier in the fertile garden. According to a friend of mine, who we will call Angelo, the Mezzo… Read More
2022-12-09 08:00
For years I have been trying to grow out a long variation of my Dark Long Armenian cucumber or Tortarello Verde Barese. This is a very long, mainly straight, beautiful specimen. I grew it mo… Read More
2022-12-02 08:00
So I grew sweet potatoes in the garden again this year. There was no fanfare to the whole event. &nbs&hell…Read More
2022-11-25 08:00
If you happen to frequent a location where gardeners
pass by and it is allowed to post a business card, or if you would really like
a Cucumber Shop sticker, just let me know. I might ask for… Read More
2022-11-18 08:00
This year I decided to grow out the Sikkim Cucumber. The whole reason for this was to try out something different. Up to this time, I have been primarily focusing on cucumbers grown immature… Read More
2022-11-18 08:00
The Hmong Red cucumber is what I would call an Asian storage cucumber. Like the Poona Kheera and the Sikkim, the thick dark skin and firm flesh allows the cucumber to store for weeks to be e… Read More
2022-11-11 08:00
One of the really difficult things to deal with when gardening is anticipating that a seed will grow and produce a specific way and having the seed produce something completely different. Es… Read More
2022-11-04 07:00
I know that this is in Italian, but here's an idea that Carol Deppe mentioned in one of her books that she borrowed from Native Americans to preserve and use their squash for longer. It is r… Read More
2022-11-02 21:57
When I began gardening as a hobby, I never thought I would be growing gourmet cucumbers. In Tucson, I was just happy to grow anything that would taste decent and wanted to share what I enjoy… Read More
2022-10-28 07:00
Do you think that you would ever eat the entire zucchini plant? Here's a little more "how to" from an organization that works to promote regional agriculture and agricultural practices in So… Read More
2022-10-14 07:00
For all of you dealing with cucumber beetles, don't forget to keep your beneficial insects around. Thanks to Di P. Regan shared these pictures… Read More
2022-10-07 07:00
Have you ever had that experience with another person that you keep trying to get the relationship to work out, but the dynamics never seems to line up? That’s about my best descriptio… Read More
2022-09-30 07:00
2021 was not a very good tomato year for me. To date, that would make over half of my years as a gardener now. Honestly – some people have a gift for growing tomatoes while others, lik… Read More
2022-09-23 07:00
My very favorite time to grow carrots is from the fall to the spring. Unfortunately, due to the dry weather in the fall and the squirrels in the winter, I rarely get any carrots at all. So h… Read More
2022-09-16 07:00
With all the posts about "good" and "bad" bugs, I really wanted to mention something. Just as plant roots suffer without healthy bacteria (those of you with clorinated pools near your garden… Read More
2022-09-09 07:00
Found this in a regional nature paper in Solano County, California. Quite fun and true. Cucurbit growers beware!!! Read More
2022-09-02 07:00
Many seed catalogs and hardware stores will soon begin selling beneficial insects. Before deciding to purchase beneficial insects to import into the garden environment, it may be wise to obs… Read More
2022-08-26 07:00
2022-08-19 07:00
While I do enjoy seeing fruit in its prime state, here are some pictures from the harvests I made back in 2020: Carosello Barese: … Read More
2022-08-12 07:00
After finding out that one of my children was intolerant to gluten and that his focus and behavior improved when he ate gluten-free, our family went about making gluten-free bread. While the… Read More
2022-08-05 07:00
2022-07-29 07:00
When I planned to grow out the Carosello Leccese in my work garden, I had no idea that I would be having to maneuver my growing around a pandemic. My though was that I will just try growing… Read More
2022-07-22 07:00
Here are some pictures of fava beans that I grew in my work garden a while ago. The variety is one of the shortest that I could find and is called the “Robin Hood” fava bean.&nbs&hell…Read More
2022-07-15 07:00
Approximately 750 seeds of viable Diva cucumber seeds from a 5 gallon (about 19 liter) bucket that was full of old fruit. Many of the old fruit would have only a few seeds and some had none… Read More
2022-07-08 07:00
Over time, I am seeing more and more concerns from people who are going to Cucurbits in areas that receive a lot of rain. While moisture is generally good, because of the way that the Cucurb… Read More
2022-07-01 07:00
I want to start by saying that, though I have been very focused on growing various cucumber and immature melon varieties out the last dozen years of my life, I continue to feel like a beginn… Read More
2022-06-24 07:00
A word to the wise - do not use grass clippings in your garden beds unless you are 100% sure that they are herbicide-free. Modern herbicides are so effective and persistent, it is difficult… Read More
2022-06-17 07:00
Reader Beware – I am about to breach a very controversial topic, of which there has been some research already done, but none that has been done with field trial of weak seed, so I tho… Read More
2022-06-10 07:00
After years of only growing cucumbers and melons in the fertile garden, I asked my friend if I could grow sweet potatoes in his garden. The reason why I chose sweet potatoes was because betw… Read More
2022-06-03 20:21
Occasionally when we finally receive something that we have hoped for, the situation turns out just the way we had hoped for, but it seems that more often - the things that we have really wa… Read More
2022-05-27 07:00
With all of the growing of cucumbers that I do, I don’t always get to eat as much as I would like. Despite growing them twice in 2019 and once with a farmer in mid 2020, by later in th… Read More
2022-05-20 07:00
As a seed saver and seller, I have to be very careful to keep each variety of cucumber and melon separate from each other. Specific protocol must be followed to ensure each variety is what i… Read More
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